148 LEPIDOPTERA. 



white, edged on the upper side with blackish-brown ; between 

 is a more slender, parallel, pale grey line ; spiracnlar line 

 pale grey or greyish-white ; iindersurface pale putty-colour ; 

 spiracles black with a grey central dot ; anal prolegs rather 

 extended behind. 



August to October on common reed {Arundo phraiimitcs), 

 feeding at night upon the leaves ; hiding in the daytime 

 within the hollow stem. W^hen full fed it spins a few 

 threads of silk around it in the stem, rather low down, 

 and there remains unchanged, and, if disturbed, quite active, 

 until the spring, when, without further feeding, it assumes 

 the pupa state within the reed. 



Pupa undescribed. 



The moth appears to hide by day, like its congeners, 

 among the dead leaves of reeds, to which it bears an accurate 

 resemblance, near the ground ; at dusk it flies about the 

 large reed-beds and will come to sugar on the leaves, 

 also to grass and rush-blossoms, and later at night sits 

 upon the reed-leaves, but seems to be very little attracted 

 by light. Forty years ago it was plentiful in Hammersmith 

 Marshes and similar spots on the banks of the Thames, close 

 to London, so much so that in 1859 a single collector re- 

 corded his capture of 108 specimens. These marshes have 

 long been drained and covered with houses, but the insect 

 is still existent in greatly diminished numbers about such 

 reed-beds as remain along the course of the river. Other 

 old localities are Yaxley and Holme Fens, and the more 

 marshy portions of the New Forest, Hants. It does not 

 appear to very greatly affect the still-existing fens of Norfolk 

 and Cambridgeshire. I have taken it at Horning Fen, but 

 have not heard of its occurrence even close by, at Ranworth ; 

 and Dr. F. D. Wheeler tells me that it is hardly known in 

 Wicken Fen ; yet there are still small and isolated localities 

 of old reed-beds at Ely, Whittlesford, and elsewhere in 

 Cambs, where it may be found ; and in Norfolk Lord 



