1 64 LEPIDOPTERA. 



pale ))rown with au ill-defiiiccl broad dark brown central 

 band ; female darker, with very obscure markings, its hind 

 wings smoky brown, tipped with orange-yellow. 



Antenna? of the male threadlike, dark umbreous ; palpi, 

 head, and thorax dull brown. Fore wings short and broad, 

 squared and truncate behind ; costa rolled back from the 

 base to beyond the middle, but only quite folded at the 

 extreme base ; colour drab-brown or pale umbreous ; the 

 markings tawny bi'own, dark brown, or deep purplish- 

 umbreous ; basal blotch obscure, usually only indicated by a 



" small spot at its outer margin ; central band very broad, 

 hardly oblique, its inner margin sinuous, its outer deeply 

 excavated, often it is even divided by a space of paler 

 ground-colour into two large cloudy blotches, or it includes 

 a pale costal blotch ; one or more dark brown broken lines 

 lie across from the costa toward the anal angle ; cilia light 

 brown. Hind wings smoky white ; cilia white tinged with 

 fulvous. Female larger, its fore wings without fold rather 

 more elongate, evenly broad and truncate, umbreous or dark 



, olive-brown with an abundant reticulation of fine brown cross- 

 lines, some of which seem to indicate the margins of the other- 

 wise invisible markings. Hind wings smoky brown with a 

 reddish-orange tinge towards the apex ; cilia concolorous. 



Variable, especially in the male, in the depth of ground- 

 colour, and the distinctness of the markings; large and 

 strongly marked specimens are common in the east of 

 Scotland. 



On the wing in June and July. 



Larva cylindrical, pale green, head shining black ; dorsal 

 plate greenish in front, the hinder half black ; anal plate 

 green — or else with the head and both plates light brown. 



May and June, polyphagous on deciduous trees and 

 bushes ; and sometimes on herbaceous plants — even found 

 feeding on flowers of Ccntranthus ruber, and apparently 

 upon anything on which it may happen to fall. Spinning 



