TRIFID.E. 43 



verse stripe, autl outside tins another, fainter ; ciiia reddish. 

 Hind wings whitish, dusted with grey, and also along the 

 costal region with reddish ; central spot small, blackish ; 

 beyond it is a blackish transverse stripe, most distinct in the 

 costal region ; along the hind margin is a faint blackish 

 cloud; cilia reddish, shading off to white. Abdomen and 

 leg tufts reddish-brown ; legs brown. 



Usually but slightly variable in the tone of colour of the 

 fore wings and in the black or brown colour of the outer 

 spots. Occasional specimens, however, are handsomer from 

 increased richness in the tone of reddish- brown and greater 

 size of the markings. A specimen from Scotland in the 

 collection of Mr. Percy Bright is very remarkable for black 

 clouding in the basal half of the fore wings. Mr. W. H. B. 

 Fletcher has examples from North Wales of a greyer tone of 

 brown colour ; and Mr. S. Stevens possesses a specimen of a 

 smooth grey-brown with hardly a trace of markings. 



On the wing from July to the beginning of September. 



Larva smooth, nearly cylindrical, but a little the thickest 

 at the twelfth segment, from which the thirteenth slopes off 

 very suddenly ; head rather small, greyish -brown or reddish- 

 grey, with the face darker ; dorsal region down to the spiracles 

 reddish-brown or purplish-brown, with a dorsal series of out- 

 lines of diamond-shaped markings from the fourth to the 

 eleventh segments, and one, more squared, on the twelfth; 

 but when quite full-grown these outlines become sometimes 

 imperfect ; spiracles white, placed in a cloudy blackish, or 

 dark brown, longitudinal line, below which is a broad yellow 

 stripe, this in the younger larva is extended round the back 

 of the anal segment ; legs and undersurface faintly brownish 

 or greyish. 



September to jNIay on cowslip, nettle, sorrel, and various 

 other low-growing plants. Feeding whenever the weather is 

 mild, so that the larva has been swept up from low plants in 

 January. 



