TRIFIDjE. yji 



the stigmata with yellowish ; upon it j ust before the apex is 

 a short oblique blackish wedge-shaped spot ; extreme hiad 

 margin edged with slender black lunules ; cilia shining pale 

 brown, divided by a darker line. Hind wings broad and 

 ample, with a rounded but rather sinuous hind margin ; 

 shining whitish with a strong pearly-bluish lustre ; nervures 

 sharply dark brown ; hind margin clouded with smoky- 

 brown ; cilia white, shining, divided by a brownish line. 

 Female similar, stouter, the nervures and shading of the hind 

 wings of a deeper brown. 



Underside glossy leaden-grey, paler toward the dorsal 

 margin, dusted with blackish beyond the middle ; nervures 

 raised into ridges and edged with ashy -grey ; discal cell 

 fully occupied by long fluffy raised scales ; reniform stigma 

 smoky-black ; hind wings pearly white ; costal region and 

 nervures dusted with brown ; central streak triangular, 

 blackish. Body whitish-brown ; legs brown, barred with 

 paler ; leg tufts smoky-brown. 



The above description applies to the more common form 

 of the species, which, however, is always and everywhere 

 variable in the degree of red-brown, umbreous or smoky- 

 brown dusting or clouding below the subcostal nervure ; or 

 the whole surface is of one of these shades. But in some 

 individuals the dark clouding is absent, the fore wings being 

 of the pale brown ground colour, with all the markings more 

 distinct, though the stripe along the costal region is usually 

 paler. In other cases this stripe, with a large portion of 

 the fore wings, is of a smooth red-brown or purple-red colour- 

 ing ; while in another series of forms the cosfca is bi'oadly 

 shaded with smoky-black, softening off to umbreous in the 

 middle area, and with the orbicular and reniform stigmata 

 deeper black. These variations seem to occur equally in 

 both sexes, and are accompanied by every possible phase of 

 intermediate colouring. Aberrations seem to be rare, but in 

 the collection of Mr. S. Stevens is a very pretty and curious 

 specimen — small, pale drab, with the margins dark. 



