298 LEPIDOPTERA. 



dotted with yellow ; cilia pale yellow. Hind wings smoky 

 white. 



Variable in size and in the depth of colour of the chocolate 

 markings. 



On the wing in May and June, and, as a second 

 generation, in July and August. 



Larva stumpy, sluggish ; head polished, dark greyish- 

 brown, nearly black, with a reddish tinge about the jaws ; 

 dorsal plate, like the head, mottled with a lighter shade of the 

 same colour; dorsal line light brown; colour light grey- 

 brown, dorsal vessel rather darker brown ; raised dots large 

 and conspicuous, black-brown, becoming lighter behind, 

 each with a black centre, from which springs an incon- 

 spicuous hair ; legs dark greyish-brown ; edges of spiracles 

 black ; prolegs of the ground colour with black hooklets, 

 (N. M. Richardson.) 



July and August on Pcdicvlarh palusiris, feeding upon 

 the seeds and seed-capsules. 



Pupa in a rather substantial cocoon of white silk, on or 

 just beneath the surface of the earth. 



The moth hides during the day in thick herbage about 

 the patches of Pcdicufaris, in fens and the wette.st parts of 

 boggy heaths, and is difficult to disturb, hiding closely in 

 the undergrowth ; but on warm still evenings it will flit 

 quietly about the large plants of the red-rattle for a few 

 minutes. It is very shy and consequently but little known. 

 Common in suitable spots in the fens of Norfolk and 

 Cambridgeshire and on the boggy heaths of Dorset. But it 

 must surely be more generally distributed, since Mrs. A. 

 Fraser showed me some years ago a specimen which she had 

 taken in a swampy spot on the bank of the river Leith 

 in Scotland. Its range abroad is very little known, but 

 seems to include North Germanv and Livonia. 



