194 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



Antennfe rather short, minutely ciliated, pale purplish- 

 brown ; palpi short but thinly scaled and visible, dark brown ; 

 head grey-brown; thorax rounded, but narrow; collar light 

 brown, tipped with darker ; rest of thorax silvery-grey, 

 shading to brown behind ; shoulder lappets uplifted ; abdomen 

 slender, smooth, brownish-white, with small lateral and anal 

 tufts. Fore wings very broad ; costa much arched at the 

 base, and regularly rounded to the apex, which is squared off ; 

 hind margin long, curved ; dorsal margin rather straight ; 

 ground colour greyish- white, much rippled with brown ; basal 

 line faintly indicated, purplish-brown ; beyond it is a very 

 broad purple-brown central band completely crossing the 

 wing, broadest on the costal margin and a little hollowed 

 obliquely in front and behind; in this are indications of two 

 slender darker lines, which probably represent the normal 

 first and second lines ; immediately beyond it, at the end of 

 the discal cell, are two distinct black dots ; hind marginal 

 region broadly banded or rippled with purplish-brown, 

 through which runs the subterminal line, white and much 

 indented, and before it a similar but fainter line. An oblique 

 dark brown streak runs into the extreme apex ; hind margin 

 edged with short black streaks ; cilia purplish-grey. Hind 

 wings broad, rounded, greyish-white, with a slender transverse 

 grey shade before the middle, and a broad pale grey baud 

 along the hind margin ; cilia whitish. Female extremely 

 similar, body a little stouter, with a blunt anal tuft. 



Underside yellowish-white, with two faint grey bands across 

 all the wings ; body and legs yellowish-white. 



Variation in this species appears to be climatal. In the 

 North of England and in Scotland the ground colour is more 

 smoky or purplish-grey, the markings becoming very obscure, 

 or, with the exception of the two black dots, the whole surface 

 of the fore wings assuming a smoky-purplish colour. I have 

 found this variety with typical specimens even so far south as 

 Norfolk. In hill districts a much darker colour is sometimes 

 assumed; the fore wings becoming of a blackish-purple and 



