294 LEPIDOPTERA. 



rounded, black-brown or black ; on the second segment is a 

 small divided black dorsal plate ; general colour reddisli- 

 grey ; dorsal line double, purplish-brown, much interrupted, 

 or formed into a series of loops, one on each segment, enclosing 

 a white spot ; subdorsal lines also double, parallel, purplish- 

 brown ; sides rippled with darker grey ; spiracles black ; 

 spiracular stripe rather paler ; undersurface and legs 

 similar. 



September till May (?) upon Fcstuca and other grasses, 

 the seeds of plantain, peas, and apparently more especially 

 upon grain in the ear. Sometimes shaken out in multitudes 

 from wheat sheaves when the latter are removed for thresh- 

 ing. A case of this nature is recorded by the Kev. J. Hellins, 

 who further states that he found these larva3 also eating meal 

 which had been placed for chickens' food in the vicinity of 

 a hay-rick. Mr. Buckler confirms this, and records seeing 

 an immense number of these larvas dislodged in the month 

 of December, from among harvested peas in the course of 

 threshing. He found both these, and those in the wheat- 

 ricks, well grown, or even full grown, in September and 

 October, though the moths did not emerge until the following 

 August. Moreover, the Eev. Joseph Greene found, in May, 

 on removing some logs of wood which had supported a rick, 

 that the chinks and cracks of the wood contained larvas of 

 this species in considerable numbers. They had crept very 

 deeply into the crevices, and spun tough cocoons of silk and 

 abraded wood. He placed one of these logs in his insect 

 room, and in due time reared the moths. 



Pupa apparently nndescribed. 



The moth hides in the daytime in thatch, in hay and corn 

 ricks, among thick herbage on banks, in thick bushes, in 

 crevices of walls near the ground, among overhanging roots 

 of grass on sand-hills and broken banks, on the ground, 

 even not unfrequently in houses — indeed, in any possible 

 shelter. At dusk it flies, and mav sometimes be taken at 



