1 96 LEPIDOPTERA. 



in the Midland Counties, who was not willing to divulge the 

 exact locality from which they were obtained. His statement 

 was that he took the first, a worn specimen (which I have 

 seen), about 1887, and that it was not till 1893 that he 

 secured another — a female — from which he obtained eggs, 

 and reared the fine examples above referred to. More were 

 obtained, and Mr. Capper has had the pleasure of placing 

 examples in various collections — mine among the number — 

 but this strain has, I fear, died out. The Rev. R. Freeman, 

 however, informs me that he has taken a single specimen in 

 one of the Midland Woods ; and future observation can alone 

 decide whether the melanic influence increases in this species 

 as it has done in others. 



On the wing in June and July. 



Larva, viewed from above, of about uniform bulk through- 

 out except at the sixth segment, but sideways it appears 

 stoutest at the ninth and tenth ; head narrower than the 

 second segment, flattened in front, notched on the crown, 

 the lobes rising in conical prominences ; sixth segment very 

 much swollen on the back and sides, and bearing a pair of 

 puckered dorsal humps, the swelling begins just below the 

 spiracle, which is thus lifted considerably above the level of 

 the spiracles of the other segments ; the seventh bears, on 

 its undersurface, a pair of transverse puckered humps, in 

 some specimens looking more like two sets of warts — three 

 in each ; the twelfth has a slight transverse dorsal ridge 

 bearing a pair of warts ; in some specimens the fourth also 

 bears a pair of three-lobed, transverse, sub-dorsal humps ; 

 second and third pairs of legs well developed ; anal flap 

 triangular, somewhat rounded at the tip, the thirteenth 

 segment, under the flap, ending in two blunt points, with a 

 shorter, sharper one between them ; skin glossy, but wrinkled 

 on the hinder part of each segment. The ground colour is 

 usually purplish-brown, sometimes more cinnamon-brown, 

 the folds and humps dark brownish-grey ; there is not much 



