TRTFID.-K. 129 



this also is curtailed, but tlu' ivniform stigma and the portion 

 of the median nervure attached to it appear always to retain 

 the pale colouring. Variations in this direction are usually 

 of a reddish colour, and are very much more frequent in the 

 female ; they are also more abundant in Ireland. In the 

 opposite direction the white colour of the nervures often 

 spreads into whitish stripes, leaving the dark ground colour 

 only in elongated blotches darkest around the stigmata ; but 

 on Dartmoor this variety has these blotches quite black. 

 Mr. J. J. F. X. King has specimens taken by himself in 

 Shetland of a pale olive-brown varying to olive-buff or pale 

 yellowish-butt", some of them with the markings scarcelj^^ 

 visible. In the collection of the Rev. J. Bristowe at Belfast 

 is a large female example taken in the County Antrim, of a 

 smooth pale reddish-brown devoid of dark clouding, and with 

 the pale markings very obscure. Another Irish form with 

 the antler mark strangely jagged on each side and quite 

 extended beyond its usual shape was recorded by John Curtis 

 in his British Entomology as a distinct species under the 

 name of Hibcrnieus. 



On the wing from the end of July, through August and 

 September. 



Larva. Head brown, full and rounded ; body stout and 

 cylindrical, rather thickest in the middle and tapering very 

 slightly toward each extremit}^ ; skin polished and very 

 glossy, yet much wrinkled transversely and most smooth 

 at the segmental divisions ; colour of the dorsal region down 

 to the spiracles deep greenish-brown or bronzy smoky-brown ; 

 on the second segment is a darker brown semi-circular dorsal 

 plate on which the dorsal and subdorsal stripes are percep- 

 tible ; these are pinkish-grey, ochreous-grey, or pale brown, 

 widening a little in the middle of the body and gradually 

 narrowing again, until they converge and meet at the tip 

 of the anal flap, which is covered by a black plate ; these 

 stripes are edged with black and freckled with grey or brown 



VOL. IV. I 



