TRTFID^. yzt^ 



abundance or deficiency of the glistening green dusting on 

 and near the nervures, which even in some pale examples is 

 occasionally quite absent. But in a well-known and con- 

 stantly recurrent melauic variety, known as var. ccqnicina, the 

 ground colour is deep dark chocolate-brown or black-brown, 

 the markings all very obscure except the white curved streak 

 above the anal angle, which is always present and generally 

 conspicuous ; and there is little or no trace of the glistening 

 green scales. This variety hardly appears to be united with 

 the ordinary form by intermediates ; it seems to occur rarely 

 or sparingly with it everywhere, more commonly in the 

 Midland counties, and in South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and 

 Shropshire appears to be quite as frequent as the typical 

 insect. In the cabinet of the late Mr. F. Bond is a strange 

 aberration having the markings of the fore wings almost 

 obliterated by dashes of white, though the nervures are 

 dark ; in that of the late Mr. H. Doubleday is a whitish- 

 brown specimen without chocolate clouding, but shaded with 

 pink, and possessing the dusting of glistening green, and 

 also the usual lines and anal streak. 



On the wing in September and October, sometimes even 

 to the beginning of November. It does not hybernate, the 

 winter being passed in the egg state. 



Larva elongate, rounded above, flattened beneath ; twelfth 

 segment raised into a bifid hump ; head rounded, the face 

 flat ; anal prolegs extended behind. Variable, greyish-brown, 

 reddish-brown, or dull ochreous, mottled, dusted, and marbled 

 with dark grey and greenish ; dorsal and spiracular lines 

 faintly darker, the former bisecting a series of outlines of 

 indistinct grey diamonds ; on the eleventh segment is a con- 

 spicuous oblique black lateral dash pointing backwards, from 

 the extremity of which a pale stripe proceeds to the tip of 

 the dorsal hump ; a similar black dash often appears on the 

 fourth segment, where it is broadly shaded with pale ochreous; 

 usual spots whitish encircled with black; undersurface 



