240 LEPinOPTERA. 



Undersitle of the fore wings polished pale lead-colour 

 costa dotted with white. Hind wings smoky white. 



A little variable in the ground colour — whiter, browner or 

 more of a dull grey ; there is also a striking and handsome 

 local form which is recurrent, and which seems to be attached 

 to certain hill localities. In it the large costal red triangle 

 is extended so as to form a very broad red band almost filling 

 the hinder area. This is known as var. latifusciamt, and is 

 quite reliable. 



On the wing from July till September. 



Treitschke describes a larva under this name feeding upon 

 comfrey {S)/mph>/tum), but this seems a very doubtful record. 

 The present species feeds on willow and sallow but seems not 

 to have been described. The late Mr. Machin told me that 

 he found it in plenty, in May, in some marshes feeding be- 

 tween united leaves of osier ; and that from these he reared two 

 hundred specimens, without mixture of any other species. 



It is a common species in hedgerows among sallow, and is 

 readily disturbed in the daytime by the beating-stick, flying 

 swiftly to another bush ; but at dusk fljang freely about the 

 same places. Common in such situations throughout the 

 United Kingdom, and in the South abundant. Abroad it is 

 found througiiout Central Europe, Northern Italy and Nor- 

 way ; in North America in Maine. 



14. P. comparana, Rub. — Expanse | to | inch (15- 

 21 mm.). Eeddish-drab or pale tawny with a dark red or 

 black costal triangular blotch. 



Antennae red-brown ; palpi slender, very divergent and 

 with the head and thorax light chestnut ; abdomen pale grey- 

 brown ; anal tuft ochreous. Fore wings not very broad, costa 

 strongly arched at the base ; apex blunt ; pale red-brown or 

 pale tawny with a small black cloudy spot near the base of 

 the dorsal margin ; on the costa is a large flattened triangular 

 black, black-brown, or red-black blotch, having near its middle 



