TRIFID.E. 363 



lated ; liind margin very slightly curved and but little 

 oblique ; colour rich purple dusted with blackish ; nervures 

 white, or dusted with white ; basal line incomplete, deeply 

 indented, black, broadly edged outside with white ; first line 

 perpendicular, black, very deeply indented, edged inwardly 

 with white, which joins upon the subcostal nervure the white 

 edging of the basal line ; second line much curved and com- 

 posed of small purple-black crescents, broadly edged outside 

 with white ; subterminal line a succession of irregular, ill- 

 defined, cloudy- white spots, partially edged inside with black 

 spots ; costal margin streaked with black and spotted with 

 white ; orbicular stigma small, round, white, ringed with 

 black ; reniform stigma also small, white, edged with black 

 and enclosing a purplish cloud ; claviform stigma purplish or 

 whitish, completely edged with black, sometimes even enclosed 

 in a black cloudy streak from the first to the second line ; 

 extreme hind margin alternately spotted with black and 

 white ; cilia shining purplish-brown. Hind wings grey- 

 brown with a golden gloss ; nervures rather darker ; cilia 

 whitish. Antennge of the female threadlike, abdomen 

 stouter, otherwise quite similar. 



Underside of the fore wings shining smoky-brown, tinged 

 at the margins with purple or red ; hind wings white with 

 brown nervures, and the costal margin broadly reddish. 

 Body and legs purple-brown. Slightly variable in the depth 

 of the purple ground colour, in the amount of white upon the 

 nervures, and in the distinctness of the white markings, most 

 of which in some individuals become obscured, or more rarely 

 obliterated, except that the orbicular stigma is constant and 

 conspicuously white. There is, however, a strong tendency 

 to climatic alteration in colour, which in the south of Scot- 

 land becomes a darker purple, and in the mountain districts 

 dark purple-brown or purple-grey with a smoky hue. Those 

 from the Shetland Isles are often much suffused with dark 

 colouring and their markings obscured. Similar dark forms 

 are found in mountain districts in Germany. 



