TRIFIDA ^5 



spicuous ; from the base of the wing iu some individuals, 

 especially those of umbreous tints, is a broad paler brown 

 subcostal stripe, one half the length of the wing, and 

 commonly uniting with the orbicular stigma; in such 

 specimens the spaces in the discal cell before and between the 

 stigmata are usually filled in with black, black-brown, or 

 purple-brown, and very often a rather dark shade from the 

 reniform stigma crosses the wing; extreme hind margin 

 usually edged with brown or black lunules ; cilia coucolorous. 

 Hind wings broad and ample, bright yellow, with a stripe of 

 smoky-yellow along the front margin, and a rather sinuous 

 black band of moderate width along the hind margin, outside 

 which the extreme edge, and the cilia, are bright yellow. 

 Female quite similar. 



Underside of the fore wings yellow, glistening, deeply 

 clouded beyond the middle with smoky-black, which is 

 suddenly cut off by a purplish-red hind-marginal band; 

 costa from the apex purplish-red, divided by a black streak ; 

 hind wings yellow, with the costal region dull red, invading 

 the black stripe, which is thus shortened ; no central spot ; 

 body dull pale reddish ; legs brown or purplish, slightly 

 barred with white ; leg tufts grey or smoky-grey. 



Variation in this species, as already stated, is constant 

 everywhere, so that no single form can be admitted as the 

 normal and typical, and it has thus been necessary to include 

 all the usual forms in the above general description. The 

 light brown specimens are often almost unicolorous, except 

 that the reniform stigma is dark ; the purple equally so, but 

 with the orbicular stigma yellow ; but often, in both, these 

 markings are obscured or almost absent, and only the constant 

 sharp black wedge near the apex of the costa remains. 

 Occasional specimens are of a much blackened purple, or on 

 the other hand of a curious lioary grey-brown, and one taken 

 by Mr. W. Holland, in South Wales, and most liberally added 

 by him to my collection, is of a most extraordinary whitened 

 appearance, almost at. though the thorax and the fore and 



