HEPIALID.^. 153 



and several large faintly pale brown spots on tlie costa, the 

 intervals being reddish-brown ; cilia pale yellowish-brown 

 with darker dashes. Hind wings purplish-brown with the 

 cilia paler. 



Underside of the male, forewings dull pale brown with 

 the markings of the upper side very faintly visible ; hind 

 wings smoky-brown ; body reddish-yellow ; legs short and 

 slender, reddish-yellow ; the third pair aborted, terminating 

 at the ends of the tarsi, which are swollen and clubbed. In 

 the female the legs are all complete, the underside of the 

 body yellowishj and of all the wings purplish-brown. 



Variation in the male is mainly in the silvery stripes, which 

 often are broken up into spots, or in other cases are 

 broadened, or of a more golden colour, and, in rare instances, 

 supplemented by rows of golden dashes in the apical area of 

 the hind wings. This last variation has been obtained by 

 Mr. S. Webb near Dover, but is usually a more northern 

 form having been obtained in Derbvshire and the North of 

 England and AVest of Scotland. The late Mr. Sang found a 

 female having ill-defined silvery fasciae, in Leicestershire, and 

 one somewhat similar has been met with in the West of 

 Scotland. Mr. F. J. Hanbury has a male taken at Black- 

 down Hill, Somerset, with broad squared silvery blotches in 

 succession from the base to the apex of the fore wings, 

 obliterating the usual lines of markings ; and in Dr. Mason's 

 collection are specimens having the central portions of the 

 fore wings occupied by a large ii'regular silvery blotch formed 

 by the junction of the first stripe with portions of the second; 

 others in which the fore wings are richly marbled with brown 

 lines, and some having a regular row of silvery streaks along 

 the hind margin. On the wing in June. 



Larva \\ inch long; slender, cylindrical, tapering a little 

 towards the head, and also very shortly at the tail ; head 

 broad in front, rather flattened, with the sides rounded ; body 

 so regularly divided by incised wrinkles that the divisions of 



