BOARMID^—BOARMIA. 219 



spotted and shaded with smoky-black. Hind wings broad, 

 rounded behind, and faintly crenulated ; whitish-brown, 

 dusted — especially on the dorsal and hinder portions — with 

 dark unibreous ; central spot small, smoky-black, before it is 

 a partial transverse umbreous line; close beyond it another, 

 complete and arranged roughly in crescents ; nearer the 

 hind margin is a broad ill-defined cloudy stripe, most distinct 

 in its dorsal portion, edged outside by a parallel irregular 

 white line ; hind margin edged with black crescents ; cilia 

 whitish-brown, clouded and dashed with darker. Female 

 stouter ; with simple antenna ; wings paler, with the dusting 

 more brown, and the markings more distinctly expressed. 



Underside of the fore wings pale smoky-brown, shading 

 to whiter in the dorsal half ; discal spot black ; the lines and 

 clouds of the upper-side, beyond it, all obscurely visible and 

 cloudy. Hind wings whiter, with the central spot and 

 following lines all similarly indicated. Body and legs pale 

 brown ; tarsi smoky-black, barred with brownish -white. 



Variation in this species is mainly along a definite line — 

 more than thirty years ago a form, then supposed to be found 

 only in the London district, was brought into notice under 

 the name of B. 'pcrfumavia . In it the whole surface of the 

 wings, with the thorax, is smoothlj^ suffused with smoke- 

 colour in a greater or less degree, the markings remaining 

 normal ; but with it also occurs rather rarely, and more 

 particularly in the female, a form in which the shading leans 

 very curiously towards smoky-i(;/wYe ; in both these the 

 ordinary brown colouring is almost entirely obscured or 

 obliterated. The smoky form is now known to occur at 

 Birmingham and in other large cities, and also to be almost 

 the only one found in the southern parts of Yorkshire and the 

 adjoining districts. More recently a further advance has been 

 made in dark variation, and coal-black sj^ecimens of both 

 sexes have been obtained — not in the usual Yorkshire localities 

 — but at Norwich, from which city very strikingly black speci- 

 mens have been sent by the Messrs. B. and E. Tillett and 



