TRIFID^. 345 



green, edged, except on the second segment, with interrupted 

 freckled blackish lines, which, especially in the dorsal, some- 

 times obscm'e the pale line; raised dots pale green finely ringed 

 with darker; spiracles white, edged with black, lying in a 

 black line which bounds the green surface ; beneath is a 

 whitish-yellow spiracular stripe deepened by degrees into pale 

 yellowish-green, which is the colour of the ventral surface ; 

 legs similar, tipped with pale brown. Exceedingly uniform 

 in colour and markingrs. 



The newly-hatched larva is pinkish-grey with a dark 

 leaden-coloured dorsal stripe and head pale brown ; a 

 fortnight later dull flesh-colour; after the second moult 

 pale greyish-green, then soon darker and showing the pale 

 lines ; from this the adult colour is gradually assumed. 

 (Adapted from Buckler.) 



April and May, or sometimes to the beginning of June, on 

 bramble, rose, oak, willow, and also on low plants such as 

 sorrel, dead-nettle {Lammiii). and Silcne infiata, but it has 

 been reared on poppy, and on yellow horned poppy. 



The winter is passed in the egg- state. 



Pupa rather short and stout, smooth and cylindrical, 

 ending in a short pair of blunt spikes, diverging from each 

 other ; colour deep reddish-brown. In a compact neat 

 cocoon of silk covered with sand or earth, underground. 



The moth hides itself during the day among herbage and 

 dead leaves, but also sometimes among dense foliage in elm 

 or other trees ; at dusk it comes eagerly to sugar, ivy-bloom, 

 ripe blackberries, and occasionally to honeydew, but very 

 rarely to light. Apparently rather uncommon in the ex- 

 treme southern counties, as Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, and 

 riot recorded in Dorset or Cornwall, but otherwise found 

 throughout England and in the eastern and northern 

 portions abundantl}^ In North Wales, but not commonly,- 

 and I have no knowledge of it in the south of the Prin-; 

 cipality. Eound throughout the South of Scotland and irt- 



