Underside of all the wings smoky, with the costal margins 

 bronzy green; body and legs brilliantly green. As in the 

 preceding species the abdomen frequently, and the whole 

 insect occasionally — or under the influence of moisture — turns 

 dark red after death. Professor Zeller states that this also 

 occurs during life, the moth being quite red when taken off 

 the dewy grass in the early morning, but changing to green 

 even as it dries upon the hand. Otherwise it varies but 

 little, except occasionally to a blue-green. 



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

 July. 



Lakva three-fourths of an inch long, very broad and almost 

 ovate. Head small, retractile, shining black ; second segment 

 much broader, having a dorsal plate rounded off behind; 

 body pale green, pale yellow, pinkish, or even dirty white ; 

 dorsal line pink, brownish, or composed of short brown 

 dashes ; there is also a broad pink, or greenish, lateral stripe, 

 usually contrasting in colour with the upper part of the 

 body; the raised spots are very broad, forming flat plates 

 six on each segment, each with a thin radiating fascicle of 

 short stiff bristle-like hairs tipped with brown, among which 

 are a few longer, more silky, whitish hairs ; the raised spots 

 themselves being pink, pinkish-brown, or pale brown ; legs 

 shining black, prolegs and under-surface dingy yellowish 

 white. When very young it is thick and stumpy, with the 

 spots large and diamond shaped, and the colour yellowish • 

 later the colour becomes more brown and the bristles appear ; 

 then after further growth the dorsal line becomes orange- 

 coloured and the lateral stripe yellow, the hairs increase in 

 number, the colour becomes again browner, and the mature 

 appearance is gradually assumed. 



July to the end of April or even May. On Rumex acetosa 

 (common sorrel) burrowing into the leaf and eating out the 

 parenchyma; hybernating when very small at the roots of 

 plants ; feeding more rapidly in the spring, and often con- 



VOL. II. g 



