ago LEPIDOPTERA. 



brown and show the darker outlined central spot; the eyes 

 become dark ; the thorax and legs light brown ; the abdo- 

 minal segments barred with the same; there is a faint 

 dorsal line of dusky spots, and a light brown spot on each 

 side of the three segments before the last ; the spiracles are 

 light orange-brown, ringed with black at the base. In a 

 truncated silken cocoon, attached for its whole length, by the 

 back, to a piece of the stem of the food-plant, and further 

 moored by strong threads from the upper part to the stem. 

 (W. Buckler.) 



The moth hides during the day among the herbage at the 

 edges of streams, rivers, fen and marsh drains, ditches, large 

 shallow ponds, and lakes. It is at this time unwilling to fly, 

 and if disturbed prefei-s to ilutter down — the female especi- 

 ally — into the dense herbage. It ilies naturally at rather late 

 dusk about the water, and on through the night, not then 

 confining itself to the vicinity of water, but roaming abroad ; 

 and is much attracted, in both sexes, by light, settling con- 

 stantly upon any gas-lamps at country roadsides. 



Formerly common in the outskirts of Loudon, now much 

 less so ; common in the Southern and Western Counties of 

 England, even more plentiful in the Eastern, and to be found 

 through the Midlands to Yorkshire and Lancashire, but I find 

 no records from the Northern Counties, or from Scotland — 

 nor indeed from Wales, though it can scarcely be absent from 

 the Principalit)'. In Ireland it is wideh' distributed, abun- 

 dant on the CTrand Canal at Athy, and tolerably common in 

 Galway and Monaghan. Abroad it inhabits Central Europe, 

 Northern Spain, Southern France, Italy, Livonia, Finland, 

 and Southern Russia. 



Genus 3. HYDROCAMPA. 



Antennas simple ; palpi short, tufted above ; thorax 

 narrow ; abdomen long and slender ; fore wings elongate, 



