HYPOCHALCIA. 27 1 



The fore-wings are ashy-grey, varied with lighter and darker. 

 From the base to the middle the wings are tinged with whitish, 

 containing dark brown atoms. On the costa and along the 

 margins of the fringes are dark brown streaks. The inner 

 margin is pale yellowish, with a number of purplish-brown, 

 short, raised, felt-like streaks. The hind-wings are pale ashy- 

 grey, sometimes brownish-grey, with paler fringes edged outside 

 with white, and bordered on the inner side by a yellow line. 



The female is larger than the male, and has a stout brownish- 

 grey abdomen, with an ovipositor. The fore-w^ngs are darker, 

 shorter and straighter, and the hind-wings are much paler, 

 alm.ost white, with only the marginal area shaded with grey, 

 and dark nervures. 



The larva is stout, and dingy white, with very small brown 

 tubercles, each with a fine hair. The head is chestnut-brown, 

 the cervical plate is darker, and a whitish line is sometimes 

 indistinctly continued on the back. 



It lives in bee-hives, where it feeds on the wax, and does 

 much mischief. The pupa is reddish brown. 



GENUS HYPOCHALCIA. {P/iycidcv) 



Hypochakia, Hiibner, Verz. bek. Schmett. p. 3OS (1S26?); 

 Von Heinemann, Schmett. Dcutschl. (2) i. (2) p. 165 

 (1865). 



This genus belongs to an extensive family of small moths, 

 with long slender bodies, long narrow fore-wings, and broad 

 rounded hind-wings. They are allied to the Grass Moths, and 

 much resemble them in shape, though not in colour. They 

 are often called " Knot-horns " by collectors, because some 

 genera (including Fhycis, Fabricius, the type of which is 

 F, roborella, Denis & Schiffermiiller) have a tuft of scales on 

 the antennae of the male, near the base. In other genera, as 



