84 LEPIDOPTEKA. 



This is in this species accomplished with somewhat unusual 

 swiftness. 1 have had egtrs laid in June, hatched in a week, 

 and the larviu full fed in sixteen more daj-s, the moths 

 emerging ten days later. But eggs of the second brood, 

 obtained in August, were fully a fortnight before hatching, 

 and the resulting larva^ fed through September and part of 

 October, and when half-grown ceased to feed and settled 

 down to hybernate. On the other hand, the ll(>v. J. Hellins 

 had larvic hatched on the seventh of July which fed rapidly 

 for a fortnight, but when two-fifths grown suddenly ceased to 

 eat, and insisted upon hybernating. At the same time in 

 August he found moths of a second generation out of doors. 

 On dock, knotgrass, persicaria, chickweed, sorrel, orache, 

 and other low-growing plants. 



Plta very curious ; light brown, slender, much angulated, 

 very like that of a butterfly ; palpus-covers produced forward 

 into a beak; each shoulder sharply pointed; tongue and 

 limli-covers very long, compact and smooth, about half way 

 down the latter is a dark brown spot on each side ; antenna- 

 covei's sculptured with the form of the pectinations ; wing- 

 covers smooth, rather glossy, the nervures indicated by dark 

 brown lines; dorsal region dull, almost rugose, the segments 

 indistinct; on each side, at the back of the wing-covers, are 

 two black spots or dots ; abdominal segments long, slender, 

 slowlj' tapering, rather darker brown, not shining, but 

 somewhat glistening : cremaster long, broad and irregularly 

 tapering, flattened beneath, and furnished at the tip with 

 two minute hooks, by which it hangs loosely in its slight 

 cocoon of white silken threads ; on the ground or among 

 rubbish at the roots of plants. 



The moth seems especially attached to waysides, hedges 

 where the herbage is rank, and the borders of weedy ditches ; 

 and sits during the day upon the leaves of the low-growing 

 plants, often quite e.xposed to view. If disturbed, and the 

 weather is very warm and still, it will fly to a short distance 



