CNEPHASflh-E—OLLVD/A. 277 



marbling ; just before the middle is a creamy white transverse 

 stripe, iisuallj' broken, and just below the fracture broadened 

 out into exterior angles, but it usually reaches the dorsal 

 margin, and sometimes is complete; apical and hind-marginal 

 region faiutlj- marbled with shining blue lines; costa dotted 

 with white ; cilia pale brown. Hind wings smoky black, paler 

 toward the base ; cilia smoky white. Female larger and 

 stouter, the fore wings broader, and the transverse white 

 stripe complete and broadened ; niarblings more distinct ; 

 otherwise similar. 



Underside of fore wings smoky brown, with two white 

 costal dots and the transverse strijDe of the upper side faintly 

 visible. Hind wings smoky-brown. 



Usually not vei-y variable, but occasional specimens have 

 the transverse band reduced to a small spot, or to a mush- 

 room-shaped marking, or even obliterated in the male ; while 

 in rare instances the same band is orange coloured or yellow- 

 brown in the female. 



On the wing at the end of June and in July. 



Larva apparently undescribed. Dr. Breyer states that it 

 feeds on Ranunculus ficaria in the early spring, folding down 

 a piece of the leaf on the underside as a habitation and gnaw- 

 ing a neighbouring leaf. Schmid says on Galeobdolon luteum, 

 Chrtisosplenixun oppomtifolium, Mcrcurialis pcrennis, Oxalis 

 acetoscUu, and Anemone hepatica, in folded leaf-edges. Other 

 writers instance AquUcgia vulgaris, Vaccinium nujrtillus, and 

 probably low-growing plants generally. 



The moth however does not prefer to hide among her- 

 baceous f)lants, but frequents bushes, especially of hazel, 

 alder, and blackthorn, and often hides among the dead sticks 

 beneath them or in the hedge-banks of hollow lanes; in yew 

 trees and similar thick cover, aiid is readily to be disturbed, 

 returning at once to the same cover. The male flies in the 

 afternoon sunshine ; the female towards dusk of its own 

 accord. Rather a local species and not abundant, yet 



