TRIFID.^. 145 



when half an inch long is very slender, of a dull greyish- 

 brown colour with an almost black dorsal line and several 

 faint lines along the sides ; afterwards, at each moult, it 

 becomes a little paler and brighter coloured, its pattern of 

 longitudinal lines and stripes remaining relatively the same. 



October to Mayor June on Arundo phragmites, Phalaris 

 arundinacea, and other coarse grasses growing in marshes 

 and at the edges of ditches ; feeding upon the grass blades at 

 night and hiding by day among the lower leaves or on the 

 ground. 



Pupa long and narrow and unusually cylindrical in shape, 

 the last three segments of the abdomen tapering rapidly off, 

 and the anal fully rounded, without any prominence except 

 two short blackish spines set widely apart, and below them a 

 number of fine hooked bristles ; eye-covers full black and 

 shining ; limb and wing covers very dark red-brown, dull 

 from abundant sculpture of fine incised lines ; back also 

 dark red-brown, extremely dull from excessively close 

 sculpture of minute pits, abdominal segments less dark, but 

 similarly covered with sculpture of crowded pitting, with the 

 exception in each case of a smooth brighter red band round 

 the posterior edge. In a slight silken cocoon between 

 drawn-together dry reed leaves, or in the fold of a turned- 

 down leaf of the same ; but sometimes in the ground, and 

 then forming a cocoon of silk and earth. 



The moth hides by day among the dead leaves of reeds and 

 grasses, and I have found it upon the thick coarse stem of a 

 great Carcx riparia, completely concealed by the pendulous 

 dead leaves. Its resemblance to the dry whitish reed leaves 

 and Canw stems is extraordinary. It flies briskly at rather 

 late dusk over the reeds, and sometimes sits upon their 

 upper leaves later in the night ; also comes freely to a strong 

 light. It may be attracted hy sugar, especially if placed 

 upon the reed leaves, and loves grass-blossom and the 

 flower-spikes of T/jpha latifolia. Attached almost solely to 



VOL. V. K 



