ARCTIID^. 239 



abdomen whitish, with a dark grey bar on the back of each 

 segment ; hinder segments tinged with yellow ; anal tuft 

 yellow. Fore wings long and rather narrow, especially at 

 the base ; costal and dorsal margins nearly straight ; apex 

 blunt ; hind margin curved and oblique ; silvery- white, with 

 three, or sometimes four, transverse oblique bands of cloudy 

 dark grey spots, through which pass longitudinal stripes of 

 dark grey lying beneath the nervures ; hind margin dashed 

 with short, wedge-shaped dark grey streaks ; costal margin 

 narrowly blackish-grey ; cilia shining white. Hind wings 

 broad and ample, rounded, except that the hind margin is 

 hollowed beneath the apex ; pale grey or whitish grey, with 

 the base and costal and hind margins darker grey ; cilia 

 silvery-white. Female very similar, with simple antennae ; 

 abdomen short and rather stout, and the wing markings show- 

 ing a tendency in many cases to disappear from the base and 

 hinder area, leaving the central portion with dark stripes, 

 sometimes much clouded. Underside of fore wings uniform 

 dark grey, with white cilia ; of hind wings dull pale grey, 

 sometimes whitish towards the dorsal margin, but with the 

 hind margin slightly dark ; cilia greyish ; body and legs grey. 

 Variation sometimes takes the direction of suffusion, the 

 longitudinal grey stripes becoming extended, and absorbing 

 the bands of spots. In other cases the fourth transverse 

 band of spots almost disappears, leaving the apical portion of 

 the fore wings whitish with a few grey streaks. Other 

 specimens are very white, with the spots small but regular ; 

 while in others the spots coalesce, stretch out into streaks, or 

 shade o£E into longitudinal clouds, when both fore and hind 

 wings become smoky-grey. In the collection of the late Mr. 

 F. Bond, now in Mr. Sydney Webb's possession, are two very 

 large female specimens of a beautifully white-grey, with but 

 two transverse lines of small dots. A well known and very 

 beautiful variety, found in Southern Europe, and known as 

 var. Candida, is entirely silvery-white, without a trace of the 

 dark markings. 



