TRIFID.i:. 315 



shade, margiued with black, strongly so ou the inner side ; 

 just beyond it is the darkest portion of the purplish-grey 

 stripe ; crossing the wing from between these two stigmata 

 is a slender dark purple-grey central shade, and touching it a 

 black wedge which arises from the second line ; on the other 

 side is the claviform stigma, very narrow and edged with 

 purple-black ; costal margin regularly spotted with purplish- 

 black clouds ; hind margin edged with black lunules ; cilia 

 lilac-brown, barred with silvery- white. Hind wings rather 

 narrow, with the hind margin somewhat undulating ; pale 

 smoky grey, at the base of the costal margin almost white ; 

 a darker cloud lies along the hind margin ; cilia white. 

 Female extremely similar, antennae simple, body hardly 

 stouter, but with a very small anal tuft. 



Underside of the fore wings smoky-brown, tinged with red 

 along the costal margin and especially toward the apex ; 

 broadly silvery-grey along the dorsal margin, and with a 

 nar)"ow silvery-grey band along the hind marginal region ; 

 reniform stigma indicated by a smoky black line. Hind 

 wings white, dusted with purple-brown over the costal 

 area ; central spot large, black ; beyond it is a curved 

 incomplete purplish-brown transverse stripe ; hind margin 

 edged with a brown line. Body, legs, and leg-tufts pale 

 purplish-brown, front tibiae barred with white. 



Variation in the southern districts is very slight, though in 

 the fens there is a tendency to greater whiteness of ground 

 colour, with a flush of purple or pink ; elsewhere rather more 

 tendency toward slate- grey ; and in rare instances the basal 

 half of the fore wings is dark smoky-grey or slate-grey, while 

 the outer half remains of the normal colour. A very beautiful 

 example of this form has been taken at Reading, by ^Ir. A. 

 H. Hamm ; another, having the two colours very sharply 

 divided in the middle of the wings, was reared in Kent, by 

 Mr. W. R. Jeffery ; and I have seen a third in the collection 

 of Mr. Percy Richards. A general suffusion of dark grey or 

 purplish -slate colour appears in more northern districts, and 



