136 LEPIDOPTERA. 



nervures ; from before the apex a faint smoky-black cloudy 

 stripe crosses the wing much more directly, and lies almost 

 parallel with the hind margin ; cilia olive-grey faintly spotted 

 along the base with black, and obscurely tipped with white. 

 Hind wings semitransparent, large, elongated, but also broad 

 and rather square behind, with the margin very even ; 

 greyish-white, faintly dusted with olive-brown ; in the 

 middle is a rather undulating transverse cloud}^ olive-brown 

 stripe, and near the hind margin another, less distinct but 

 more direct ; nervures dusky ; cilia long, olive-grey mixed 

 with white. Female apparently wingless, but having minute, 

 hardly visible, wing-stumps with hairy cilia ; antennas simple, 

 dark brown, clouded with white ; head and thorax covered 

 with raised olive-brown scales, the latter decidedly crested at 

 the back but not having the mass of long scales of the other 

 sex ; abdomen thick at the base, and tapering regularly to a 

 point behind, but the ovipositor not usually excerted ; colour 

 red-brown with black-tipped dorsal ridges, anal tuft long and 

 pointed, grey-brown ; legs long, slender, devoid of tufts ; 

 dark brown, barred with ashy brown. To the uninstructed 

 ej^e more like a spider than a moth. 



Underside of the fore wings of the male smoky-grey, 

 faintly tinged with light brown along the costa, and with 

 olive-grey along the hind margin; hind wings dusky-white, 

 dusted with olive-brown, showing the two transverse stripes 

 of the upper side, and a partial additional one near the base. 

 Body dark red-brown ; leg tufts very loose and fluffy, olive- 

 grey ; tarsi brown. 



This species varies in the intensity of its markings, and 

 also in its general colour, from preponderance of grey, or of 

 brown, or even of yellow dusting ; in the Eastern Counties 

 the pale grey seems to predominate, and also in Scotland, 

 where the pale, even whitish, grey is set off by more distinct 

 dark markings. On the other hand a specimen reared from 

 a larva found in South Yorkshire in 1892. by Mr. J. N. 

 Young, is of a beautiful yellow-grey with dark markings ; 



