DREPANULIDM. 77 



Underside of the male white, with the costal region and 

 hind margin of all the wings tinged with brown ; a black 

 central dot on all the wings, and a faint indication of a darker 

 line from the costa ; hind margins edged with blackish, 

 especially on the projections of the fore wings ; intermediate 

 cilia white ; legs rather short, pale brown, thickly clothed 

 with scales ; body pale yellowish. Female similar, except 

 that the hind wings have a more yellow-brown tint. 



Variation in this species is usually confined to the depth of 

 ground colour and to the greater or less amount of reticula- 

 tion of delicate brown lines. In some cases this is almost 

 absent and the colour approaches yellow, while in other 

 instances, especially in the north, the reticulations are so 

 abundant and so dark that the whole surface of the fore 

 wings is of a dark grey-brown. In Mr. J. E. Robson's 

 collection is a male of this dark colour, but with a broad ill- 

 defined white stripe before the hind margin and the cilia of 

 the fore wings very strongly ornamented with bright white 

 crescents. Another phase of variation is in the distance 

 apart of the two transverse lines on the fore wings, and in 

 Mr. Sydney Webb's collection is one in which they nearly 

 unite. 



On the wing in May and June, and, as a partial second 

 generation, in August. 



Larva warty, wrinkled ; head bifid, orange-brown with 

 whitish markings ; third and fourth segments each with two 

 bifid dorsal protuberances, and a smaller bifid eminence on 

 the twelfth ; anal prolegs absent, replaced by a small pro- 

 jecting, horizontal, red tail. Body pale yellowish-brown, 

 shaded into reddish on the back and sides, all the usual spots 

 slightly raised, frequently bifid, and clouded with dark 

 brown ; dorsal line a row of brown spots ; subdorsal lines 

 similar but less distinct. (C. Fenn.) This larva presents a 

 most curious resemblance (in miniature) to a male Triton or 

 newt {Lacertd). Hence the name of the moth. 



