BOARMIDrE—BISrON 125 



Underside rather similar to the upper, the ground colour 

 of a more dull white, and the stripes dull pale purple. Body 

 purplish-brown; leg tufts large and loose, smoky-brown; 

 legs purple-brown barred with white. 



Variable in the degree of black dotting upon the white 

 ground; where this is deficient the markings are often rich, 

 and contrast well with the whiter ground colour ; also the 

 positions of the first and second transverse lines are exceed- 

 ingly unstable, they often approach each other or even 

 coalesce upon the dorsal margin, and not unfrequently so 

 completely amalgamate in the dorsal half of the wings that 

 the two chocolate bands run together, and are so much 

 broadened as to occupy a very large portion of the wing- 

 surface. Rarely this tendency is carried still further; Dr. 

 Mason has a specimen with the fore wings entirely black 

 except a few white dots in the middle; hind wings also 

 blackened; Mr. S. J. Capper another, having the'' white 

 dotting nearer the costa, and the black clouding very intense, 

 while a specimen in Mr. S. Webb's collection has the basal 

 and hinder area both broadly chocolate-black and the central 

 area blackened with excessive dusting; here also is a speci- 

 men with quite the opposite tendency, the basal, central and 

 hinder areas being white with but little black dusting and 

 the bands richly chocolate and black. The Eev. J. Greene 

 has one in which the chocolate bands are spread and greatly 

 difiused. 



On the wing in March and April, but occasionally as early 

 as the end of February, or so late as the beginning of May. 



Larva. Head as wide as the anterior segments of the 

 body, prone ; the face flat, with a depression in tlie middle ; 

 the crown with a wide and very conspicuous but not very 

 deep notch ; body irregularly covered with raised points, or 

 shagreened, and having numerous wart-like protuberances ; 

 these are arranged in transverse pairs ; the two on the back 

 of the second segment rather distant ; one on each side of the 



