TRIFID^. 163 



darkest ; spiracular line whitish, pale green, or pale yellow ; 

 on it are placed the circular pale or white spiracles, outlined 

 with black ; beneath is a stripe of the ground colour or else 

 ochreous or green, followed by a white line which passes in 

 front of the anal prolegs ; undersurface of the ground colour, 

 with a darker, rather interrupted, band above the legs, which 

 are of the ground colour or else greenish. The texture of 

 the skin on all the darker portions is rough, being composed 

 of extremely short and minute bristly blackish points, while 

 in the intervals and on all the pale stripes it is smooth. 

 (W. Buckler.) 



July, August, and September ; on the flowers and unripe 

 seeds of wild carrot, thistle, toadflax, chicory, scabious, knap- 

 weed, purple clover, hawkweed, restharrow, Gr&pis vircns, 

 Lychnis vespertina, and Silcne otites ; and in confinement even 

 on the green legumes of the scarlet-runner bean (Phascolus). 

 Sometimes to be found on flowers in the daytime. 



Pupa of moderate bulk, the head and palpi rather sharply 

 produced ; back of the thorax swollen ; wing-covers broad at 

 the ends : abdomen tapering and ending in two rather long 

 anal points ; abdominal segments roughened in the middle ; 

 colour pinkish-red-brown or dark brown. (W. Buckler.) 

 In a weak thin silken cocoon in the earth. In this state 

 through the winter, and sometimes continuing over another 

 year, or more. 



The moth is very lively in the daytime, in the hottest 

 weather buzzing at the blossoms of clover, sainfoin, or bugloss, 

 in cultivated fields, or at those of sea-holly and birds-foot 

 trefoil on the coast sandhills. When the weather is less hot 

 it prefers to sit on the ground in bare places in fields of 

 clover, Trifoliiim incarnatum, Anthyllis vulneraria, and 

 Melilotus, starting up in the most active manner when 

 approached, flying round and settling upon another bare spot, 

 to rise with equal or greater agility if followed. Indeed, its 

 capture under these circumstances necessitates some careful 



