344 LEPIDOPTERA. 



at tlie base but the nervures darker ; cilia dusky ■ yellow 

 along the base, white at the tips, the two colours divided 

 by a smoky line. Female almost exactly similar but with 

 the abdomen thicker and more blunt. 



Underside of the fore wings very pale smoky-brown, with 

 purple costa, and the hind marginal region broadly dusky 

 pale purple ; reniform stigma faintly indicated by a smoky 

 cloud ; beyond it is a black spot or streak on the costa 

 shading into a smoky indication of a transverse stripe; 

 beyond this is a still fainter stripe. Hind wings dusky 

 brownish-white dusted all over with brown, and along the 

 costal area also with purple-red ; central spot obscurely 

 smoky-brown ; beyond it is a slender transverse line of the 

 same colour. Body and leg-tufts pale purple ; legs purple- 

 brown. 



Variable in the tone of colour of the fore wings to paler 

 or darker purple-brown, and still more in that of the basal 

 portion, which is often paler and sometimes pale drab, this 

 frequently extending to the angulated central shade; occa- 

 sionally the latter is blackened and thrown strongly into 

 relief, while in other cases it is nearly or quite obliterated. 

 A specimen taken in Cumberland by Mr. G. B. Routledge 

 has the pale blotch yellowish and divided into two parts; 

 while one in Mr. H. J. Turner's collection has it almost 

 ashy-white, and the central area rosy-purple. Scottish speci- 

 mens often are very richly coloured. 



On the wing in September and October, but in Scotland 

 sometimes at the end of August. 



Larva moderately stout, cylindrical, and uniform in bulk, 

 with tolei'ably well-defined segmental divisions ; head 

 brownish-green, freckled with darker; second segment edged 

 in front with very dark brown ; colour of the back and sides 

 down to the spiracles green, somewhat inclining to olive, and 

 freckled with a little darker green ; on this freckled surface 

 the dorsal and subdorsal lines can be distinctly traced, paler 



