All the species that form this beautiful group are day-flying 

 insects, and are generally to be seen hovering about grassy 

 situations when the sun shines. Germar informs us that 

 Schrank in the Fauna Boica, II. 2, 164, has named them 

 Pi/rausta ; but as we have never seen that work, we do not 

 know whether he has given any characters. We believe the 

 ocelli, so very similar to those of u^geria, have not been 

 noticed by any author. 



The following are the species recorded as British ; and it is 

 a little singular that not one has been added to the group 

 since Mr. Haworth described them in his Lepidoptera Bri- 

 tannica. 



1 P. atrahs Linn., Don. 8. 266. 4. . July. Grassy places Birch 



wood. 



2 purpuralis Z/., Don. 1 0. 339. 2. May. Hedges and Heaths. 



3 ostrinalis Hub July. Hedges. 



4 punicealis Hub June, July, Aug. Heaths, 



Hampshire. 



5 porphyralis Fab July. Heaths. 



6 cespitalis Fab July. Chalky places. 



7 sordidalis Hiib April, June, July. Chalky 



and grassy places. 



8 anguinalis Hiib July. Chalky places. Mr. 



Walker Southgate. 



9 cingulalis Liim June, July. Grassy hills 



Scotland, Devon. 



As all the above species are figured by HUbner we have 

 selected the rarest, which Mr. Dale and myself had the plea- 

 sure of capturing in tolerable plenty, as we ascended Arthur's 

 Seat near Edinburgh the end of June 1825. We observed that 

 whenever a cloud obscured the sun, they ran amongst the 

 roots of the short grass to conceal themselves — P. cingulalis 

 is also met with in Devonshire, and I believe in Hampshire. 



The plant is Bromus mollis (Soft Brome-grass.) 



