32 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



base and apex, which is sharply angulated ; hind margin 

 very oblique, long and gently curved ; dorsal margin nearly 

 straight ; colour grey-brown, dusted with brown and slightly 

 with black; on the costa are three equidistant red-black 

 spots ; the first originates the first line, very obscure, dotted 

 and a little curved ; the second gives rise to a narrow distinct 

 red-brown central stripe, in which is visible the small black 

 discal spot; the third is the origin of the second line which, 

 like the first, is brown but very indistinct, mainly visible by 

 dots on the nervures; edging it outside is a stripe rather 

 paler than the rest of the ground colour, and immediately 

 succeeding this a broad red-brown band which fills the hind 

 marginal region ; within this band are a few irregular darker 

 brown clouds which seem to indicate a subterminal line ; 

 cilia smoky-brown mixed with grey-brown. Hind wings 

 elongated, large and broad, the hind margin bluntly angu- 

 lated at the apex, and very slightly crenulated ; ground 

 colour and dusting as in the fore wings ; central spot small 

 and Ijlack ; the middle area so tinged with purplish-brown as 

 to indicate a broad but very obscure band ; hind margin 

 broadly occupied by a cloudy reddish-brown band, ill-defined 

 on its inner edge ; cilia smoky-brown. Female much smaller, 

 with simple antennas ; wings more thickly dusted and the 

 markings more diifused and obscured, or even partially 

 absent ; otherwise similar. 



Underside of all the wings reddish-umbreous, freckled all 

 over with a yellower tinge ; discal spots visible, black-brown. 

 Body and legs brown. 



Not very variable, but occasionally, in both sexes, the 

 central stripe throws off a broad shade of its own colour out- 

 wardly so as to form a faint broad band ; in other cases, 

 especially in the female, it is very nearly obsolete. This is 

 conspicuously the case in specimens from the North of 

 Ireland, where also both sexes are much reduced in size. 

 (A similar small form is found in the South of Spain.) 



On the wing in July and August. 



