252 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



feed ; later on it spins the young leaves together, and finally it 

 dispenses with a retreat altogether and feeds openly on the 

 leaves. The moth is out in the autumn, rather earlier in 

 Scotland. It is widely distributed in England, and in some 

 seasons and localities very abundant. In Scotland it is found 

 from Roxburgh to Moray, and in the latter county as well as in 

 Perthshire and Argyll it is often plentiful. Single specimens 

 have been recorded from Ireland, and these from Co. Galway 

 and Co. Westmeath. 



The Northern Arches {Cry modes cxuUs). 



The specimens of this species shown on Plate 123, Figs. 

 I, 4, are from Shetland, and more or less of the typical form, 

 but rather more variegated, perhaps, than the actual type. In 

 other specimens from the same locality the yellowish sub- 

 marginal line is band-like ; or the ground colour is browner, 

 and sometimes blackish. These blackish examples approach var. 

 assimilis, Doubleday (Fig. 3), from Perthshire, where it was first 

 met with, at Rannoch, by Weaver, over sixty years ago. Exults 

 (The Exile) was discovered by Mr. H. Mc Arthur in the Shet- 

 lands in 1883. In 1896 Mr. P. M. Bright captured a specimen 

 in the Shetlands which Barrett considered referable to maillai-di^ 

 Hiibn. (Geyer, Fig. 833.) " Its ground colour is drab-brown, 

 abundantly marked with umberous and dusted with black, and 

 its only conspicuous marking is the reniform stigma, which is 

 distinctly edged with white in such a manner as to give 

 it a singular resemblance to Mavicstra \Barathrd\ brassicaJ^ 

 Staudinger, it may be added, adopts maillardi as the earlier 

 name for this species, and it may have to be generally accepted. 

 The caterpillar is ochreous whitish, shaded with grey, and with 

 yellowish plates on the first and last rings ; spiracles black, 

 head reddish brown. It feeds on grasses from August to May, 

 but is sometimes two, or even three, years in completing its 



