TRIFID^. 233 



1864 by Mr. E. Birchall, and described by him, "rich 

 yellow-brown." 



In the collection of Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher is a specimen 

 having the fore wings short and singularly dilated, the white 

 lines and dashes at the apex and hind margin being of 

 double the usual width, and a series of prolonged white 

 streaks arising from the costa. In a series from the 

 Hebrides, in the cabinet of Mr. A. F. Griffiths, along with 

 well-marked normal brown specimens, is one of a dark 

 mottled brown, and another having the ground colour 

 'whitc, with a brown central bar. On the East coast of 

 England there is sometimes a mixture of forms, as in 

 Durham, where Mr. J. Gardner has obtained ordinary pale 

 Southern specimens with others of full brown, and one of 

 a yellowish- white almost devoid of markings. 



On the wing in May and June, and in its more northern 

 and western localities in July ; also occasionally, as a partial 

 second generation, at the end of July and in August. 



Larva very plump, moderately cylindrical but tapering a 

 little towards the head, which is small, shining, pale brown, 

 with a darker streak down each lobe, and slightly bi-istly ; 

 body pale purple-brown, second segment darker, sometimes 

 blackened on the back, but divided by the longitudinal lines. 

 Of these the dorsal is moderately broad and rather undula- 

 ting, pale yellowish-brown ; the subdorsal also broad but 

 divided throughout by a slender line of the ground colour ; 

 spiracles grey ; the purple-brown colouring ceases abruptly 

 immediately above them, and the whole undersurface, with 

 the legs and prolegs, is dull joale yellowish-brown. The 

 larva of the var. ctqisoijliila sometimes is of a slightly brighter 

 purple-brown, but otherwise agrees accurately. 



June and July, and as a second generation in September, 

 on the seeds of Silcne inflata and S. maritima, also occasion- 

 ally on >S^. nutans, Lychnis xespertina and L. dioica ; sometimes 

 even on garden species of Silene and Dianthus, including the 



