So LEPIDOPTEKA. 



insect is so closely among the leaves of its food plant and the 

 surrounding herbage that it very quickly becomes worn ; and 

 that its favourite resort is where the Typha grows among 

 dense masses of reed in the very heart of the fens, some- 

 times where it is inaccessible except in the driest seasons. 



Pirst discovered in these islands in the year 1846 by 

 Mr. English, who was then collecting at Yaxley Fen for 

 Mr. H, Doubleday ; afterwards obtained in some plenty in that 

 place, and at Whittlesea Mere, until both were drained. It 

 is singular that from that time onward there appears to be 

 no record of the species in the Cambridgeshire fens. Its 

 principal haunts are now the fens of Norfolk and SufEolk, 

 whence almost all the more recent specimens have been 

 obtained ; but a few are found occasionally about ponds in 

 the middle of Sussex. A record of its capture in Devon 

 proves to have been an error, and I know of no other loca- 

 lities for it in the United Kingdom. Abroad it is found in 

 Northern and Central Germany, Northern France, Holland, 

 North Italy, and Central, Southern and Eastern liussia. 



2. N. sparganii, Esp. — Expanse H inch. Fore wings 

 truncate, reddish-drab or yellow-drab, with three black spots 

 in the usual position of the reniform stigma, a transverse 

 row of black dots beyond, and another along the hind 

 margin ; hind wings yellowish-white with darker clouds. 



Antenna? of the male stout, simple, but rather strongly 

 ciliated, reddish-drab ; palpi small, narrowly tufted, pale 

 reddish-drab dusted with black, apical joint porrected and 

 rather long ; head strongly and prominently tufted, the tuft 

 so placed forward as to conceal the palpi, reddish-drab, with 

 a slender black transverse line across the tuft below the 

 apex; thorax smooth, yellowish-drab, without crests or 

 markings; fascicles very small, curved, yellowish-white; 

 abdomen long, thinly scaled, glossy pale golden-brown or 

 whitish drab, without crests; lateral tufts very small, white ; 

 anal tuft dense, golden-brown. Fore wings rather narrow, 



