56 LEPIDOPTERA. 



olive brown with the markings mottled black-brown ; basal 

 blotch large, roughly angulated outside, and rather extended 

 upon the dorsal margin ; centi-al band erect, broadest on the 

 same margin, just above the middle nearly divided by a 

 straight horizontal streak or lacuna ; costa dotted with 

 black ; a larger black spot in the apex, and beneath it an 

 oblique smoky brown cloud ; cilia dull brownish white. Hind 

 wings smoky black, cilia whiter. Female similar. 



Underside of the fore wings smoky black, with white costal 

 dots and clouded cilia. Hind wings smoky white, apex 

 blackish. 



A very beautiful variety which is found more especially in 

 fens and marshes has the fore wings velvety black, or dull 

 black, with the usual markings indicated by lustrous silvery 

 lines. It was at first, when discovered, supposed to be 

 •5, /irrirnta, Gn., but it is reared as well as taken with the 

 present species and united with it by intermediate forms. In 

 hill and mountain districts in the North a small form is 

 abundant, having the typical colour and markings ; this 

 variety has been supposed to be >S'. rwpcstrana, Dup. — some- 

 times written rurestrana in error. 



On the wing from the end of May till July, and occasion- 

 ally as a very partial second generation, in Sejitember. 



Larva cylindrical, rather elongated, very active, most 

 puzzling from its great variability ; smok}- brown, smoky 

 black, green or liver colour with head and plates shining 

 black; or else pale grey, blue-grey, dull white or pale yellow 

 with the head and plates light brown, or with the head and 

 dorsal plate black and the anal plate brown, or yellow with 

 a brown dot. 



May and June in the young shoots of almost all kinds of 

 herbaceous plants and shrubs, feeding also in many instances 

 in the blossoms and the joined or drawn together leaves, also 



