but it soon fades, for a few evenings' and mornings' flights are 

 sufficient to wear ofFand inj ure the delicate plumage of the wings, 

 and then they become of a dull yellow colour and the purple 

 loses the beautiful bloom with which it was before tinged. 



The females are either much less abundant than the males 

 or they conceal themselves, and probably do not fly so often, 

 especially in the day time, when occasionally I have met with 

 this moth in considerable numbers, in marshy meadows, 

 where they rise under the feet in brushing through the long 

 coarse grass. In an excursion to Horning the S^th of last 

 June with Mr. Charles Paget, his Brother and Capt. Chawner, 

 we found them common in one marsh, together with Erastria 

 uncana (folio 140^), and it has been observed there ten days 

 later ; about the same time Mr. Dale was taking it in Holt 

 Forest : it has also appeared in abundance near Croydon in 

 Surrey ; in the neighbourhood of Bristol, and in Somerset- 

 shire : I have taken it the middle of July near Yaxley in 

 Huntingdonshire, and it has occurred at Trundle, Brick and 

 Ugg-meres from June 22nd to August 7th. 



The males of this insect are distinguished by their pilose 

 antennae, but I do not remember an instance at this moment, 

 in which the hinder pair of legs are the smallest in any other 

 Lepidopterous insect; such however is the case in the males 

 of the genus before us, although it escaped the party who 

 gave it a name : in this sex the middle pair is the longest and 

 furnished as is usually the case with a pair of spurs at the apex 

 (vide fig. 8 *), whereas the hinder pair is entirely destitute of 

 spurs (fig. 8 f ), but in the female there are spurs at the apex 

 which seem to be rather smaller than those of the intermediate 

 tibiae. 



The Caterpillar feeds on the Plantago majoj; but the plant 

 figured, which was in flower at the time the moths were taken, 

 is the Vaccinium Oxycoccus (Cranberry). 



