TRIFID.K. 79 



On the wing at the end of Aug-nst and in September. 



Larva greenish or yellowish witli the dots black, head 

 brownish, plates of the second and anal segments greenish- 

 white ; spiracles black. (Treitschke.) 



May to July or August— but possibly hatched in the late 

 autumn and feeding through the winter— in the stems of 

 Tijpha latifolia, eating the pith ; also occasionally in those 

 of T. amjustifolia, where it grows around the larger plant. 



Pupa cylindrical, remarkably even in thickness from end 

 to end; anal segment suddenly and bluntly rounded off, 

 devoid of the usual triangular projection, but having two 

 short thick points placed widely apart and inclined obliquely 

 downwards ; between them are several stiff hairs, and below 

 them two rounded eminences, as of the anal structure ; wing 

 covers long, closely covered with minute incised lines, birt 

 with the limb-covers very glossy; abdominal and dorsal 

 segments less so, being covered, except the hinder edge, with 

 extremely minute roughening, and in front with t broad 

 band of pitted sculpture; colour chestnut with a smoky 

 tinge toward the head, which is bluntly squared ofF, and 

 where there is a small projecting beak, apparently the' case 

 of the palpi. In a very slight cocoon of silk and scrapings 

 of the food within the stem of the food plant. It is placed 

 w^ith the head upwards in the stem, in contrast to that of 

 N. tijijlicc, in which the head is usually downward. 



Nothing is known of the moth in the daytime, but it 

 doubtless hides among the dead leaves of the reed-mace. 

 It flies just over the beds of that plant from dusk till half- 

 past ten o'clock at night; and in the two hours of that 

 period is very strongly attracted by a light. Dr. F. D 

 Wheeler says that the female is the earliest to fly at dusk,' 

 and that the males are so eager to get to a strong light 

 that they will not leave the lamp, and are especially easy to 

 catch by that method. Also that the general flight of the 



