THE DUSKY-LEMON SALLOW. 21 



The Dusky-lemon Sallow {MelUnia {Xanthia) gilvago). 



Two examples of this species are shown on Plate lo, Figs. 9 

 and 10. The purplish-brown mottling or clouding and greyish 

 suffusion of the fore wings is much denser in some specimens 

 than in others. Often the suffusion is quite absent, and the 

 purplish brown is only seen as spots. Again, in an almost 

 unicolorous form the ground colour is of a pale orange tint, 

 the cross markings and outlines of the reniform are as in the 

 type, and the series of blackish points on the submarginal line, 

 usually present in the type, are more conspicuous, owing to 

 absence of the other usual dark markings ; this seems to be 

 the palleago of Hiibner, which has been considered a distinct 

 species ; I think, however, that it is only a form ol gilvago. 

 The earliest recorded British specimen of this form was taken 

 at Brighton in 1856, and it and others captured in the same 

 district were then thought to be examples of M, ocellaris^ but 

 their true identity was established by Doubleday in 1859. Very 

 few specimens of this form have been reported from other parts 

 of England, but I have recently seen one that was taken at light 

 in the Canterbury district, Kent, on October 3, 1907. In its 

 typical form this species has an extensive range in England, 

 spreading from Durham to Surrrey and Sussex. The earliest 

 known British specimens were captured in the neighbourhood 

 of Doncaster over sixty years ago, but its occurrence in Surrey 

 seems not to have been noted until comparatively recent times. 



The caterpillar is pinkish grey-brown, with three paler lines 

 and a series of purplish diamonds along the back ; the sides 

 are mottled with purplish brown above the black spiracles, and 

 striped with ochreous grey below them. According to Buckler, 

 whose description is here adapted, the four pale raised dots 

 circled with dark brown, placed within the dark marks on the 

 back of each ring, serve to distinguish this caterpillar from its 



