88 LEPIDOPTERA. 



smoky-brown ; nervures faintly darker ; cilia and front 

 margin whitish-brown. Female rather larger, with stouter 

 abdomen and narrower anal tuft ; fore wings shining, light 

 reddish-brown ; hind wings also lighter brown ; otherwise 

 similar. 



Underside of the fore wings smoky-brown with the margins 

 decidedly paler — yellowish-brown dusted with darker — dorsal 

 margin glistening. Hind wings smoky-brown, with all the 

 nervures the margins and cilia yellowish-white. Body and 

 legs dark brown. 



There is variation in the colour of the fore wings, paler to 

 drab, darker to black-brown, always with the greasy gloss, 

 and some males are of a soft light yellow-brown with darker 

 clouding on the nervures ; while the darker forms are often 

 unicolorous except for the stigmatal dots, the pale shade being 

 obliterated. Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher has, however, a specimen 

 reared by him from a larva found in Sussex, of a wholly uni- 

 colorous smoky-black, the spots being also absent. 



On the wing in August. 



Larva very elongate, smooth, compressed at the segmental 

 divisions, second and anal segments with horny plates ; head 

 bifid, dark i-eddish-brown, plates similar ; body white with a 

 reddish tinge and a few scattered bristles ; usual raised spots 

 distinct, brown, spiracles black ; prolegs tipped with dark 

 grey. (0. Fenu.) Mr. Buckler's description confirms this, 

 but he calls the colour of the body deepish flesh-colour, and 

 mentions that the dorsal and spiracular lines are. faintly in- 

 dicated in deeper colour, and the dorsal plate also of the 

 deeper tint and divided by a paler line. 



May to August in the stem of common reed {Anmdo 

 phragmites), eating out the interior substance between the 

 knots and making round holes in the sides for exclusion of its 

 excrement. By these holes it is readily discovered, and through 

 one of these it issues when in search of fresh food in the same 

 or another reed-stem. The winter is passed in the egg state. 



