374 LEPIDOPTERA, 



ground colour, while beyond the hind marginal area is 

 narrowly dotted or dusted with smoky-purple ; orbicular 

 and reniform stigmata both large a,nd obscure, dusted and 

 margined with purple-brown, the basal portion of, the latter 

 occupied by a leaden-brown or dull black spot ; cilia faintly 

 crenulated, ochreous, dusted and dotted with purple-brown. 

 Hind wings of moderate . breadth, white, with a yellowish 

 gloss and a faint smoky shading before the hind margin ; 

 cilia white "faintly tinted with brawn. Eeiuale similar, with 

 threadlike antennsD, and the abdomen stouter and more 

 pointed. 



Underside of the fore wings creamy-white, shaded along 

 the costa and hind margin with pale purplish-brown ; a small 

 dark dot indicates the reniform stigma, and beyond it is 

 a faint, slender, brownish, partial transverse streak. Hind 

 wings white, faintly dusted along the costal region and hind 

 margin with pale brown ;- central spot small, dusky black; 

 beyond it is a faintly browner cloudy transverse stripe. 

 ;Body pale purplish-brown; legs deeper in colour. 



Variable in the degree of mottling and banding of the 

 fore wings with smoky-purple or purple-brown, this in some 

 individuals forming broad clouded transverse stripes, in others 

 being much decreased in amount, broken into clouds and 

 patches, or to a great extent obliterated. A very uniform 

 pale brown form, much like pale Orthosia fernujinca, found 

 in Germany, does not seem to have been observed with us. 

 A far more beautiful variety, bright orange-yellow with the 

 markings reduced and broken up into spots and shades of 

 rich purple-red, has become somewhat historical The first 

 -specimen on record was taken at Brighton in 1856, and was 

 ..recorded and described as the distinct species known on the 

 Continent, bat not then in this country, as X. ocellaris. 

 Others were taken in the succeeding two or three years, and 

 noticed under the same name, but in 1859 the late Mr. H. 

 Doubleday corrected the error, pointing out that all these 

 specimens belonged to X. gilvago, and explained" the dis- 



