BREPHIDES. 329 



Underside rich orange-tawny with some white clouding 

 along the costal edges of all the wings ; a square spot beyond 

 the middle of the fore wings, and a slender transverse stripe 

 from it, are deep black, and the apical space dull black ; in 

 the hind wings the black markings of the upper side are 

 repeated. Body and legs black, but covered with pale ashy 

 down. 



Variation in the colour of the fore wings is not unusual, 

 from brownish-tawny and rusty-brown to blackish-brown, 

 but in the last case usually with a hoary dusting and the 

 dark colour much restricted to the anterior half. In the 

 collection of Mr. S. J. Capper is an example having the fore- 

 wings marbled almost all over with orange-brown except at 

 the margins ; he has also a f male having the hind wings 

 yellow. One in Dr. Mason's collection has all the middle 

 and apical areas of the fore wings broadly clouded with 

 white and pale brown ; and a female in that of Mr. P. M. 

 Bright has a broad white central band. In the white clouding 

 there is often considerable variation, since an extension half- 

 way across the fore wings is by no means rare, while in some 

 individuals it is restricted to two white costal triangles. In 

 the hind wings the black-brown stripe from the costa, uniting 

 with the great dorsal brown blotch, is often broken into 

 spots, or partially broken and swollen into one large round or 

 lunate spot, or reduced into this one spot only, and I have 

 one specimen in which this stripe is wholly absent. Occa- 

 sionally the black marginal band throws out a broad extension 

 as a black blotch which almost crosses the orange-red space. 

 Mr. C. W. Dale possesses a specimen in which the fore and 

 hind wings are entirely black. 



On the wing in March and April. 



Larva slender, cylindrical, and extremely even in thick- 

 ness ; head rounded, semi-translucent, pale green ; body dull 

 soft green, exactly the colour of a birch-leaf; dorsal line 

 slender, double, white ; subdorsal lines quite similar, so that 



