322 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



that Stated by Barrett to have been captured in a moist place at 

 Stockton-in-the-Forest, about four miles from York, certainly 

 before the year 1855. Then there is a record of a specimen from 

 Quy Fen, Cambridgeshire, in May, 1862. Seven years later 

 the late Mr. C. G. Barrett took a specimen as it fluttered about 

 a gas-lamp outside Norwich. In 1877 ^.nd 1878 the use of 

 bright collecting lanterns in Wicken Fen may have led to the 

 capture of nearly twenty Marsh Moths, anyway it seems to 

 have been a record for the time. 



Very few specimens were taken in the fens between the year 

 last mentioned and 1898, when the total secured by several 

 collectors visiting the fens in June of that year amounted to 

 something like fifty examples, all males. Two female specimens 

 were captured in the Carlisle district, one in 1896, and the other 

 in 1897. No male was noted in that locality until 1899, when a 

 specimen was netted as it flew along a hedgeside at night, on 

 May 20. Two other males have since been taken there, in 

 much the same way. The life history of the species is little 

 known. Hofmann describes the caterpillar as reddish brown 

 with white dots, and a white line along the middle of the back ; 

 spiracles and head black. It feeds in the summer on low- 

 growing plants in meadows, and hides in the daytime on the 

 underside of a leaf. 



The range of the species abroad extends to Siberia and 

 Amurland. 



The Brown Rustic (Rusina tmchrosd). 



Here, again, the female is smaller than the male, as will be 

 seen on Plate 153, Figs. 46,5?. Sometimes the general colour 

 of the fore wings is of a blacker tint, and in such specimens 

 the iine black cross lines are obscured. 



The caterpillar is dark cinnamon brown ; three whitish 

 lines on the back, the central one, most distinct on the front 



