6o LEPIDOPTERA. 



darkest at the month ; dorsal plate glossy black ; anal plate 

 blackish-brown with black marginal ridge and posterior 

 warts ; rest of the body with the skin soft and smooth, dark 

 slate-brown inclining to deep olive-drab above, especially on 

 the thoracic segment ; dorsal and subdorsal lines faintly 

 paler drab, just sufficiently so to be seen ; raised dots black- 

 brown, each with a fine hair ; spiracles oval, black ; under- 

 surface and legs lighter drab ; prologs barred with black and 

 fringed with dark brown hooks, which cling to any surface. 

 (W. Buckler.) 



July, but doubtless feeding from the spring or probably 

 even the previous autumn, in the stems of Cladium niarisens, 

 Carcx ■paludosa, Iris ])scudacorus^ and probably other marsh 

 plants ; feeding down the heart of the stem above the root- 

 stock and causing the plant to cease to throw up fresh 

 shoots and to become withered in the middle. Apparently 

 it moves from plant to plant, entering by a small hole which 

 it gnaws in the lower part of the stem and feeding thence 

 irregularly upward or downward. 



Pupa stout, eye-pieces rather prominent, beneath them the 

 head is produced to an obtuse point; thorax smaller and 

 rounded ; wing-covers clearly defined but lying, with the 

 limb-covers, close to the body ; lower abdominal rings 

 tapering gently to the tip, which ends in two fine points ; 

 head, thorax, and wing-covers deep olive-green ; abdomen 

 less deep and more brownish olive-green, divisions darker, 

 surface shining. In a cocoon of elliptical figure composed 

 of earthy particles mixed with moss and other comminuted 

 vegetable substances, the inside smoothly lined with 

 brownish silk. (W. Buckler.) Mr. Buckler does not say 

 that the larva leaves the stem for pupation, but from the 

 nature of the cocoon this must be the case. 



The moth doubtless hides in the daytime among low 

 herbage and sedges in its favourite haunts ; at night it files 

 vigorously, comes to sugar, especially when placed on leaves 



