56 LEPinOPTERA. 



brown) and there is a dusky dorsal line forming two small 

 dots at each segmental division ; above the spiracles is an 

 irregular double dusky line ; spiracles black, placed in a 

 stripe rather paler than the ground colour ; below which is 

 another dusk}- line, darkest on its upper edge and fading oH' 

 below. 



August till May ; or where it has fed up quickly in August, 

 a second generation is produced from October till May ; 

 hybernating when less than half grown, upon the dead stems 

 of its food-plant. On Valeriana officinalis and Spircra 

 nlmaria ; but in confinement upon knotgrass, groundsel, 

 and other low-growing plants, or upon hawthorn. 



Pupa pale brown, with greenish wing-covers. In a slight 

 cocoon among rubbish or moss, on the ground. Not more 

 fully described. 



The moth hides during the day among rank grass and 

 herbage, and sometimes in dwarf bushes ; and is easily dis- 

 turbed, getting up close to the feet of an intruder, and Hying 

 a short distance to hide in a similar place ; but towards 

 evening and till dusk flitting about of its own accord in a 

 very quiet and gentle manner. Attached to fens and 

 marshes, and in them sometimes abundant ; but to be found 

 also in any little marshy spot in a range of sandhills, or at 

 the edges of salt marshes, or in boggy fields and wet woods. 

 In such spots common in Kent, Sussex, Surrej', Hants, 

 Dorset. Berks and Somerset ; found in one locality in Devon ; 

 scarce in Gloucestershire; locally plentiful in Essex and 

 Suffolk and ver\- abundant in the fens of Norfolk and 

 Cambridgeshire, and in Huntingdonshire; to all appearance 

 absent from the greater portion of the Midlands, but has 

 been taken in Staffordshire, and Shropshire, and on the 

 borders of Cheshire ; very locally in Yorkshire, and once, by 

 Mr. llobson, in Durham. In Wales Mr. Vivian has taken it 

 in Glamorganshire ; I found it in tiny spots of marsh near 

 the coast of Pembrokeshire, and have little doubt that 



