I04 LEPWOPTERA. 



are opeu at the posterior extremity, the enclosed space in 

 each is brick-red with a median transverse black bar; there 

 are two or four white dots on the back of each segment, and 

 numerous waved marlvings of different shapes on the sides. 

 (E. Newman.) The llev. J. Hellins says that the colour varies 

 from pale fawn-colour, through greenish-brown to dull green 

 or even bright green, with the markings darker, and even 

 tinged v?ith a good deal of red. 



June and July, and a [partial second generation in Seji- 

 tember ; on (lidium ccrwm, G. 'inoUugu, and other species of 

 bedstraw. 



I'l I'A red-brown, short, with a narrow anal spike (Ilof- 

 uKuinj. Apparently not further described. lu this con- 

 dition through the winter. 



The moth is one of our most constantly familiar and 

 abundant s])ecies ; inhabiting lanes and hedgerows as well as 

 woods everywhere, hills, and heaths, but most plentiful in 

 dam|) meadows and marshy spots where the herbage is coarse 

 and where some of the species of bedstraw abound. Always 

 on the alert, it is disturbed by the foot-step or the beating 

 stick at all times in the day with the utmost ease, and from 

 its numbers is often felt to be a nuisance. Its time of 

 natural flight is at dusk and into the night, but it does not 

 seem to be especially attracted bj' light or liy any kind of 

 sweets. 



Abundant throughout the United Kingdom except the 

 Shetland Isles, but in the North of Scotland more restricted 

 to woodlands. Abroad it has a wide range through 

 Central and Northern Europe, Iceland, the North of Italy, 

 Corsica, Sardinia, Dalmatia, Southern Russia. J^itliynia, 

 Tartary, Asia .Minor, the mountain regions of Central Asia, 

 and North America to California. 



'J'his species and the last are so closely allied, and so 

 similar, that a few remarks as to their distinctive characters 

 may be useful. M. rivatx is distinctly the larger species, its 



