r84 LEPIDOPTERA. 



slender, sinuous, much indented, edged with white, but 

 arising from a black costal blotch. Outside it the whole 

 hind-marginal area is clouded with grey, through which 

 passes an irregular and indented, indistinct, whitish sub-mar- 

 ginal line. In the middle of the costa, and between the first 

 and second transverse lines, a cloudy grey costal blotch 

 encloses a black central spot. At the base of the dorsal 

 margin is a whitish shade, and above it a prominent tuft of 

 raised dark grey and whitish scales, standing erect ; besides 

 this, shorter raised tufts lie transversely on the central spot 

 and transverse lines ; cilia pale grey, intersected and dashed 

 with darker grey. Hind wings rounded, pale grey, paler at 

 the base ; cilia grey, with a white line at their base. Female 

 similar, with simple autennge. Under side of fore wings dark 

 grey ; the costa beyond the middle freckled with paler ; hind 

 wings whitish, with large grey flecks ; body and legs grey. 



Variable in the colour of the fore wings, and especially of 

 the basal blotch, which is sometimes very pale grey, at others 

 almost black. Individuals also occur in which the central 

 whitish band is oblitei'ated by a suffusion of smoky black. 



On the wing in June and July. 



Larvae short, stout, rounded, hairy, tapering to each end, 

 and compressed at the incisions ; dull purplish, with the 

 dorsal line and a series of dorsal spots whitish and very con- 

 spicuous ; the latter placed on alternate segments, and 

 formed by horse-shoe shaped dorsal markings, bisected by 

 the dorsal stripe ; head black ; body covered with short grey 

 hairs. Varies considerably in the number and disposition of 

 the dorsal markings, but the dorsal stripe is always whitish. 

 (Fenn.) 



On hawthorn, blackthorn, pear, and apple, in April and 

 May ; but also feeds — very small — in the autunm, and 

 hybernates. Mr. Fletcher says that the eggs hatch in the 

 beginning of August ; in the middle of September the 

 young larvte draw a few threads across some depression in 



