BOARMIDAi—BOARMIA. 209 



in a less degree than the fore wings ; in the middle is a 

 slender transverse line of brown crescents, their tips dotted 

 with black ; sometimes before it a fainter partial line prin- 

 cipally visible at the dorsal margin; hinder region rather 

 more dusted or clouded with umbreous, and in it an indistinct 

 line or row of yellowish-white streaks and dots, or clouds ; 

 hind margin spotted with deep black lunules ; cilia pale 

 brown, clouded with darker. Female rather larger, much 

 stouter, with simple antennae, sometimes lighter in colour 

 and with more emphasised markings. 



Underside of all the wings pale yellow-brown ; fore wings 

 shining, the discal spot and the transverse lines and more 

 conspicuous shades of the upper side indicated in dull brown ; 

 hind wings having two dull brown transverse stripes, one 

 before and the other beyond the middle ; cilia pale brown, 

 spotted with pale yellow. Body and legs brown, tarsi 

 blacker, barred with pale brown. S. 



Rather variable in the depth of colour of the clouding and 

 stippling of brown on the wings. Mr. S. J. Capper has a 

 specimen, taken in the New Forest, in which all the clouds 

 and brown shades are smoky black, and the markings more 

 deeply black ; and another in which the whole, except the 

 transverse lines, is of a rich bright brown. A female speci- 

 men from Woolmer Forest, Hants, is suffused with smoky- 

 brown, the transverse lines being hardly perceptible ; and 

 Mr. G. T. Porritt possesses specimens from East Kent, in 

 which the mottled clouding is of a greenish-black. But the 

 most striking and interesting variation in this species is a 

 form which seems to be quite confined to the South of 

 England ; its fore wings are of a rich velvety black, not very 

 shining, without the usual markings, but having the discal 

 streak and the nervures all deeper black ; hind wings smoky- 

 black; antenna, thorax, and even abdomen blackened. 

 There is no record of the earliest appearance of this form, 

 but I well remember that forty years ago it was reared by 

 the late Mr. W. Machin from larv^ obtained from Leith Hill, 



VOL. VII. Q 



