P YRA LIDM—P YRA L IS. 27 5 



slender sinuous yellow transverse lines ; hind margin and 

 cilia broadly rich yellow. Female similar. 



Underside of the fore wings dull crimson-purple, with the 

 base of the costa, and the second triangular spot, yellow ; 

 hind wings whitish-purple with faint rippling whiter lines ; 

 cilia of all broadly yellow. Body and legs yellow, shaded 

 with purple. 



On the wing in June and July, and again from August to 

 October, apparently as a partial second generation. 



Larva. Length | inch ; general colour dark dull brown 

 with an olivaceous hue. Thoracic joints much wrinkled, the 

 rest each with two wrinkles. Raised dots lighter than the 

 body, with a dark central shining spot emitting a dull white 

 hair. At the extreme outer edge the body is generally 

 lighter, with a dark irregular impressed longitudinal line, 

 above which in front, and below it behind, is a small point 

 also giving rise to a hair. Undersurface lighter than the back, 

 with a row of dots and hairs on each side. Legs and prolegs 

 of the same colour, the latter with a spot and hair outside. 



When young lighter in colour, and with the head and 

 dorsal plate paler. (Prof. C. V. Eiley.) 



Professor Comstock says of it : " The larva sometimes 

 abounds in old stacks of clover hay, and especially near the 

 bottom of such stacks. As the infested hay becomes covered 

 with a silken web spun by the larva, and by its black gun- 

 powder-like excrement, much more is spoiled than is eaten 

 by the insect." Other observers confirm this statement. On 

 the other hand the moth is said to have been reared from 

 moss and lichens on the trunks of trees ; and one observer 

 states that he reared it from a larva feeding in June on 

 Cohcea icandcns. 



That it is destructive to clover hay in stacks seems to be 

 quite established ; and there is reason to think that the straw 

 of thatches is sometimes attacked and that in default of 

 other food dead leaves are not despised. 



