TRIFJD.E. 227 



tinged with green ; dorsal line composed of a series of 

 narrow V-shaped smoke-coloured marks, one on each seg- 

 ment, the apex of each pointing backward ; these V-shaped 

 marks most conspicuous on the fifth to ninth segments ; on 

 the others they appear as an interrupted greyish line, bor- 

 dered on each side with smoke-colour ; subdorsal lines in- 

 conspicuous, dull white, margined very narrowly with brown ; 

 along the spiracles extends a smoke-coloured stripe, dark on 

 the lower part, but shading gradually into the ground colour 

 above. The ground colour between the dorsal and spiracu- 

 lar lines is faintly variegated with brown, and below the 

 spiracles, which are black, is a yellowish-white stripe ; under- 

 surface semi-translucent and shining, greyish, tinged with 

 green. (G. T. Porritt.) 



End of July to beginning of September on Sikne otitcs, 

 feeding on the flowers and seeds ; but in confinement will 

 eat also the seeds and blossoms of Lychnis Jios-cuculi. On 

 the Continent, according to M. Guenee, it feeds upon Chjpso- 

 pliila paniculata. In some seasons it may be swept in 

 numbers from plants of Silene otitcs in the very few localities 

 in which that plant abounds, but, strangely enough, very 

 nearly every larva so swept proves to be infested with a 

 parasite in the form of an Ichneumon larva, which destroys 

 it when little more than half-grown. From this cause, 

 though eggs are laid in abundance, the yield is extremely 

 small. 



Pupa undescribed — subterranean. 



The moth is very rarely captured in this country ; of the 

 specimens in cabinets, the large majority have been reared, 

 notwithstanding the terrible mortality of larvse from the 

 ravages of their parasite. The first specimen of which we 

 have any distinct record in this country was found in the 

 daytime, sitting upon a plant of the Viper's bugloss {Echium 

 vulgcLve), near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, early in July 1868, 

 by the late Rev. A. H. Wratislaw. Three years later he 



