126 LEPIDOPTERA. 



than the ground colour, irregularly and sparsely dusted with 

 white ; legs brownish, their bases black ; prolegs green tipped 

 with ferruginous. Extremely variable, from bright light 

 green almost to black. A variety found in some numbers 

 in Kent by Mr. Charles Whitehead, of Maidstone, from 

 which were reared the small form of the moth already 

 mentioned, is thus described by Mr. G. T. Porritt : " Length 

 when full grown about one inch. Ground colour dark olive- 

 green, in one specimen nearly black ; head and legs intensely 

 black and shining ; two very fine, interrupted, almost incon- 

 spicuous yellow lines extend through the dorsal region, 

 followed outside by a broad, bright yellow, double subdorsal 

 stripe, the outer of the two being narrower than the inner ; 

 spiracular stripes also broad and light yellow ; raised dots 

 large and distinct, black, surmounted by a pale greyish-yellow 

 spot, though these paler spots are less conspicuous on the 

 lateral than on the dorsal dots ; spiracles greyish-yellow, 

 narrowly edged with brown ; bristles grey, short, and stiff ; 

 ventral surface dark olive-green, the prolegs having on the 

 outside a large cup-shaped black mark. 



In the greatest abundance in the summer and early autumn, 

 apparently not confined to any season, but in continuous 

 broods. On almost every description of low-growing plant, 

 and sometimes very destructive to clover, peas, and other 

 green crops. It has even been reared upon the leaves of 

 lime-trees and the green pods of scarlet-runner (Phasedus). 



Pupa rather slender, with a conspicuous tongue-case pro- 

 jecting down over the front of the abdomen ; black-brown or 

 pitchy-black, but it has been found of a green colour, 

 remaining so almost till the emergence of the moth. In a 

 white silken cocoon, which is semitransparent, under a leaf, 

 or among vegetable debris. 



The moth sits by day on all sorts of low-growing plants, 

 but particularly upon heath and the stiffer herbaceous plants, 

 and usually head downwards, but is excessively restless, flying 



