256 LEPIDOPTERA. 



in the middle area large clouds of pale bluish-grey or 

 yellowish-grey, with a large dark spot on each margin ; also 

 the subterminal line is more distinct and broader, whitish- 

 grey ; and the cilia are very prettily dashed and scalloped 

 with dark and pale grey. Altogether it is a far more 

 beautiful insect than our local form, but the latter is quite 

 reliable lure. Such variation as we have is usually in that 

 direction, especially in Ireland, where, as Mr. Kane points 

 out, there is sometimes a faint trace of the yellower colour 

 of the central area, but nothing has been found approaching 

 at all closely to the Continental type ; and in the south-west of 

 Ireland, the Atlantic islands especially, the insect becomes 

 almost blue-black. 



On the wing in June, July and the beginning of i^ugust, 

 emerging over a long period. It has been suggested that 

 the specimens found in fresh condition in August may be the 

 offspring of those out in June, but this does not seem to be 

 established. 



Larva cylindrical, but very plump ; the extremities 

 rounded; head shining pale brown, with two perpendicular 

 darker clouds in front ; mouth dark brown ; body very pale 

 greenish-grey, on the back more yellowish-grey, having the 

 whole dorsal and lateral surface down to the spiracles dusted 

 or reticulated with minute blackish flecks, which form a 

 o-eneral cobweb-like network ; dorsal and subdorsal lines 

 indistinctly indicated by rather more dense longitudinal 

 clusterings of the blackish atoms ; on each segment, midway 

 between the dorsal and subdorsal lines, and between the 

 latter and the spiracles, is a roundish dot, ringed with black ; 

 each spiracle is indicated by one or two sharp black dots. 

 Undersurface faintly tinged with green and covered with the 

 most delicate possible network of grey atoms ; also there is a 

 black dot on each segment outside the line of the legs ; these 

 and the prolegs are greenish-white, and above the anal 

 pair is a dusky black transverse bar. Hairs few and very 



