33 



inches and on to about two and three quarters across. 

 Male: front wings glossy pure satin white, the edges 

 yellowish brown, hind wings the same; underneath, the 

 wings are dusky black with an edge of dull orange-red. 

 Female: front wings dull yellow of different depths of 

 colour, variously marked in a map-like sort of manner, 

 but mainly, in the more distinctly marked specimens, in 

 two transverse bars, following the outer shape of the 

 wing, but tending to the base, and these composed of a 

 series of patches separate or conjoined and either open 

 or filled up, and a line of similar colour, namely deep 

 dull red or greenish brown, a little within the upper 

 edge. Hind wings dull orange-brown or dusky reddish 

 margined with a thin border of orange red, dusky at 

 the base. 



Localities for this species are York, Nunburnholme, 

 Ordsall, Charmouth, Nafferton, Driffield, Bisterne, 

 Southport, Faversham, Manchester, Falmouth, &c. &c., 

 throughout the country at large most abundantly. 



The situations where it is found are open fields and 

 meadows, gardens occasionally, churchyards, road-sides, 

 and lanes. 



The date of the appearance of the perfect insect is 

 in June. 



The caterpillar is dull yellowish white, the head reddish 

 brown, the second segment with a patch of reddish 

 brown on its upper part. 



The date of the appearance of the caterpillar is in 

 August, and thence to April. 



The caterpillar feeds on the roots of the hop (Humulus 

 lupulus), nettle (Urtica urens), and burdock (Arctium 

 lappd}. 



This is the moth which forms so conspicuous an object 

 in the still and tranquil summer evenings, hovering like 



VOL. I. r> 



