TRIFID.-E. 5 J 



green or purplish-brown, minutely reticulated with grey ; 

 incisions of the segments yellowish when the larva is con- 

 tracted ; dorsal and subdorsal lines darker but hardly 

 perceptible, and there is an ill-defined row of oblique grey 

 streaks pointing backward on each side of the dorsal fine, 

 but not meeting ; spiracular line conspicuous, white, shading 

 off above ; spiracles black ; usual raised dots white, and there 

 are two clearly indicated white spots on the apex of the 

 twelfth segment ; the black spiracles on that segment also 

 well marked. (C. Fenn.) A variety figured by ^\x. Buckler 

 is of a bright chestnut colour with a broad well-defined 

 spiracular stripe. 



August and September on ferns and low plants generally, 

 also on sallow, birch, and other bushes ; feeding "at nightj 

 concealing itself under leaves or stones on the ground'' by 

 day. 



Pupa of the usual form, rather stout and with the hinder 

 edges of the wing-covers much swollen, limb and antenna- 

 cases but faintly expressed ; whole surface very glossy, but 

 the wing-covers faintly sculptured, and the anterior edges of 

 the segments more decidedly so. Colour uniform sh'iniug 

 red-brown. Anal segment very decidedly rounded off; 

 cremaster minute but armed with a pair of rather long and 

 slightly hooked bristles which almost twist together. ^In a 

 rather firm cocoon of earth bound together and lined with 

 silk, under the surface of the ground. In this condition 

 through the winter. 



The moth from the crumpled look of its wings when at 

 rest, and the projecting tufts on its abdomen and thorax, 

 looks wonderfully like a shrivelled dead leaf, and sometimes,' 

 confiding in this resemblance, sits on the upper side of a 

 leaf of ivy, or some other plant, with head pushed closely down 

 to the petiole ; and thus will deceive any but the keenest 

 observer. Usually, however, it seems to sit in the daytime 

 in thick bushes and among herbage near the ground. At 



