TRIF/D.'K. 95 



Pupa yellow-brown, in the stem, head upwards. (Hof- 

 mann.) 



Neither larva nor pupa appears to have been noticed in 

 this country. 



This species stands singularly alone. So far as I am aware, 

 there is nothing closely allied to it in the world. 



The moth hides through the early part of the day among 

 rank herbage. At about 5 or 6 p.m. it begins to move 

 about, and from that time till sunset flies gently over the 

 coarse herbage in the more open portions of the fens and 

 marshes. When pursued and alarmed it drops down and 

 endeavours, usually with success, to hide itself among the 

 luxuriant growth ; but if approached gently when flying may 

 be taken with the utmost ease. According to my own experi- 

 ence it is rarely, if ever, visible at night, and probably passes 

 that season in hiding. Its special home is in the fens of 

 Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, and it is also plentiful in the 

 small patches of fen by the rivers in Suffolk ; yet in some 

 years very few specimens are to be seen even in these favoured 

 haunts ; in others, without any ascertainable cause, the whole 

 fen is alive with their buzzing multitudes. It was formerly 

 found in a marshy place on Barnes Common, Surrey, and 

 Mr. C. Fenn states that it abounded in one or two localities 

 in the immediate vicinity of London, from which it has now 

 totally disappeared. Another still favoured locality is the 

 marshy portion of the sandhills at Deal, Kent ; and it has 

 been found in small marshes in Sussex and the Isle of Wiarht. 

 and in boggy heaths in Dorset, especially round Littlesea in 

 the Isle of Purbeck ; also in Somerset ; and in single localities 

 in Gloucestershire, Devon, Berks, Essex and Leicestershire; 

 in several in Yorkshire ; and there is a doubtful record in 

 Lancashire. In South Wales, Mr. W. F. H. Blandford found 

 it near Saundersfoot, and I met with a few specimens in a 

 tiny bit of marsh only a few yards in extent in the far west 

 of Pembrokeshire. The only record in Scotland seems to be 



