TRIFIDjE. 169 



dusting of orange-red upon the black band ; cilia yellowish- 

 white. Female extremely similar. 



Underside of the fore wings smoky-black, broadly dusted 

 along the costal and hind-marginal regions with pale yellow, 

 along the dorsal margin greenish-white ; just beyond the 

 middle is a large orange-yellow blotch. Hind wings orange- 

 yellow, abundantly dusted with black, and having the 

 marginal black band obscurely reproduced in black dusting. 

 Body and legs pale grey-brown dusted with black ; tibias 

 barred with black. 



Hardly ever variable, but in the cabinet of Mr. S. Stevens 

 is a specimen in which the yellow hind wings are much 

 suffused with black. 



On the wing in May and the beginning of June. 



Larva when full grown about 4 inch long, moderately 

 stout and of true Noctua form; with the twelfth segment 

 plump ; thoracic segments slightly tapering toward the small 

 and rather flattened head, which with the dorsal plate is of a 

 glossy pale green ; colour of the body light green ; dorsal line 

 dark green ; subdorsal line whitish, finely edged above with 

 dark green ; spiracular stripe yellowish- white or pale yellow, 

 well relieved along the upper margin by a conspicuous dark 

 green stripe ; spiracles white, faintly outlined with black ; 

 raised dots brown, but almost imperceptible ; undersurface 

 and legs rather paler green than the back ; the skin soft and 

 smooth. When about to spin up all the lines disappear and 

 it becomes of a uniform green tint. 



When newly from the egg it is white with a brown head 

 and a narrow brown dorsal plate. At a fortnight old the 

 head is brown, spotted and streaked with darker brown, and 

 the body either pale watery-green, or else tinged with pinkish- 

 grey, with a dark green dorsal line, a whitish subdorsal, and 

 a broader white spiracular line, the prolegs clear and nearly 

 colourless. After the next moult the head and second seg- 

 ment are pale brown with slightly darker brown markings, 



