28o LEI'inorTKRA. 



LFndersides of the wings wholly shiuing pale smokj^ brown. 

 Body and legs pale yellow-brown. 



Very variable in size ; and in some degree so in the 

 ground colour, paler or darker, or even occasionally having a 

 red-brown, or olive-brown tinge ; also in the size and depth 

 of the black angles or spots of the transverse lines. One 

 form is figured in which these are obliterated, and the dark 

 colouring massed together along the hind margins. Of 

 this two specimens exist in the collection of the late Mr. H. 

 Doubleday in Bethnal Green Museum. In Mr. Sydney 

 Webb's collection is one of a shiny pale grey without mark- 

 ing except the discal spot and basal darker band ; and 

 another wholly reddish-brown. 



On the wing in June and July. 



Larva when full grown from 25 to 29 mm. in length ; 

 almost uniformly cylindrical throughout, though rather 

 stoutest at the third and fourth segments, which have deeply 

 subdividing wrinkles ; and on each of the following seg- 

 ments to the twelfth is one deep transverse wrinkle a little 

 beyond the middle ; segmental divisions well divided, and 

 the anal flap is plumply rounded oil behind ; above the 

 spiracles a tumid ridge is very prominent, the uudersurface 

 being flattened and deeply wrinkled ; the dorsal raised dots 

 are arranged rather in a square than a trapezoidal figure ; 

 colour black or black-brown, sometimes a little bronzy ; the 

 head having a pale bar of grej'ish-drab across the upper lip, 

 and the papilla; of the same colour ; all the legs drab ; 

 spiracles black and difficult to discern, undersurface of a 

 worn bronzy appearance. (W. Buckler, condeused.) When 

 young more slate-grey with the head and plates black. 



August to May or June, hybernating when well grown ; on 

 bran or any refuse of corn ; also apparently on the dried seeds 

 and husks of some grasses, such as Hokus lanatus, in stables ; 

 always carefully concealed in a silken tube which it spins on 

 the floor, or on any solid surface in contact with its food. 



