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 (Hamulus 
lupulus ), nettle (Urtica urens), and burdock (Arctium 
lappa). 
This is the moth which forms so conspicuous an object 
in the still and tranquil summer evenings, hovering like 
vol. i. n 
