TRIFID.^. 209 



The moth hides during the day under herbage and leaves 

 on the ground ; but at dusk flies to the blossoms of sallow, 

 even to those of the dwarf sallows which grow on the sand- 

 hills of the sea-shore ; may also be found at night sitting about 

 upon the grass and herbage. The female deposits her eggs 

 on the tops of dried plants, among the old seed-heads or on 

 the stalks, and does not seem at all careful to place them 

 within reach of one of the usual food-plants. The especial 

 home of this species has been for so long on the sand-hills 

 of the Cheshire and Lancashire coast that it has almost 

 come to be looked upon as confined to such spots ; but 

 this is by no means the case. It is not at all scarce at 

 Lewes and one or two other places in Sussex ; and is found 

 at Croydon, Surrey ; and Wanstead and elsewhere in Essex ; 

 also rarely in Somerset and Gloucestershire, and more fre- 

 quently in Herefordshire. At Doncaster and some other 

 localities in Yorkshire it is decidedly more common, and 

 York was the place of its first discovery — 1842 — in these 

 islands. Not very scarce on the coast of Durham, and found 

 in Cumberland and Northumberland. There is reason to 

 believe it widely distributed in South and Mid- Wales, and 

 it is not scarce, I believe, in Glamorganshire. The only 

 captures that I know of in Scotland are from near Hawick 

 by Mr. Grant Guthrie. Rather local, yet widely distributed 

 in Ireland, especially in the northern half of that country ; 

 found near Limerick, Belfast, and Enniskillen, also in 

 Monaghan, Westmeath, Galway, and Armagh. Abroad its 

 range includes Germany, Hungary, Livonia, Finland and 

 the Ural Mountain district. 



7. T. instabilis, Esi\ ; incerta, Btmid. Cat. — Expanse 

 1^ to \% inch. Fore wings of any shade from pale 

 greyish-drab to red-brown and purple-black ; lines and 

 stigmata usually obscured, except that the subterminal 

 line, which is yellowish-white, is distinctly broken below 

 the costa, that portion being set back and edged with 



VOL. V. O 



