282 LEPIDOPTERA. 



rather attciiLiatecl behind, soniewliat wrinkled and exces- 

 sively sluggish ; dull pale yellow, faintlj' tinged with red on 

 the back ; spiracles brown ; head light brown ; plates faiutly 

 brownish, the dorsal plate having a brown bar across its 

 posterior margin; prolegs very small and inconspicuous. 



July, and a second generation in October, hybernatiiig in 

 the feeding burrow and assuming the pupa-state in the same 

 jjlace in April. On ragwort {^Senccio jacohcea), feeding within 

 the growing stems upon the pith and stopping the growth of 

 the central shoot so that it thickens and bunches its leaves 

 together, while side shoots grow up past it. With us, I 

 believe, on this plant only. 



Pupa light chestnut, in a cocoon of white silk, in the larval 

 liabitation. 



The moth sits in the daytime upon ragwort either upon 

 the growing plants or on the old withered stems of the 

 previous year, greatly preferring the sea-coast, though it is not 

 wholly absent from chalky districts, and in some of them 

 even common. The male flies at sunset and the female a 

 little later ; both remain on the wing at night and may be 

 attrncted by a strong light. Both may also lie disturbed 

 and induced to fly by dajr about the food-plant. Moderately 

 common on the coast from Kent to Dorset, and to Norfolk ; 

 also on that of Yorkshire and Durham in the east, and of 

 Somerset, Cheshire, Lancashire, and Westmoi eland in the 

 west, but the only inland counties in which I find it recorded 

 are Surrey and Cambs. Taken fifty years ago in North 

 Wales, and more i-ecently on the Pembrokeshire coast, in 

 numbers. In Scotland recorded from Roxburghshire, the 

 Edinburgh district including Fife, Perthshire, and Dum- 

 bartonshire. In Ireland common on the Dublin coast and 

 near Cork, moderately so near Sligo, and in Antrim and 

 Donegal. Abroad found in France, Holland, North Cermany, 

 Moravia, and Sweden. 



