84 LEPID OP TERA . 



"brown, with a broad chestnut-red central band curved up at 

 the anal angle, and produced to the apex. 

 • Antennae black-brown, barred with white; palpi, head, 

 and thorax olive-brown ; abdomen dull brown. Fore wings not 

 much elongated but of even width ; the costa not folded, yet a 

 little raised at the edge ; apex bluntly augulated ; dull \vhite 

 or whitish olive-brown ; basal blotch large, dark olive-brown, 

 its outer edge oblique ; central band broad, dull red or 

 chestnut-red ; very oblique and running into the anal angle 

 where it throws off a similar dark-red cloudy blotch along 

 the hind margin to the apex ; cilia white, shaded with brown. 

 Hind wings smoky brown ; cilia white. Female similar. 



Underside of the fore wings leaden-black ; costa and cilia 

 shaded with white. Hind wings pale lead-colour, with 

 white cilia. 



Variable, more especially in the direction of more dusky 

 colouring, the olive-brown of the basal blotch often spread- 

 ino- over and suffusing the rest of the fore wings. On the 

 other hand, this basal blotch is sometimes nearly obliterated 

 by the white ground colour. 



On the wing in June and July. 



Larva active, rather flattened, pale yellow with an indis- 

 tinct greenish dorsal vessel, and the raised dots hardly 

 perceptible ; head light brown ; plates yellow. 



April, May, and the beginning of June on sallow, feeding 

 in the young shoots, eating out their hearts, and drawing- 

 together the terminal leaves. 



Pupa light brown or amber-coloured, in a snug little silken 

 cocoon in the fold of a dead leaf on the ground. 



The moth is always to be found about sallow bushes, and 

 is easily disturbed by the beating-stick through the day ; 

 flying freely around the same bushes at dusk. Very common 

 in the south of England — except in West Cornwall — to 



