1 50 LEPIDOP TERA . 



packed and showing as mere ridges ; antenna-covers rather 

 dull, broad, flattened, very shallowly sculptured with the form 

 of the pectinations ; wing-covers not very glossy, having 

 scarcely any sculpture, but the nervures indicated and the 

 margins rather sharply edged; dorsal and abdominal seg- 

 ments abundantly and coarsely pitted, except upon . the 

 hinder band of each, which is smooth ; anal segment thick 

 and suddenly rounded off; cremaster a single conical spike ; 

 colour dull red. It is curious that the female pupa has the 

 wing-cases as sharply indicated as the male, though thinner 

 and flatter, also it has the broad bars across the antenna ; 

 but its anal spike, in my example, is placed at right angles 

 to the position of the other. 



In the sand, without cocoon, so that sometimes it is 

 left bare by the blowing away of the sand. 



The winter is passed in this condition. 



The moth sits in the daytime upon any herbage in the 

 shelter of tufts of grass, or upon bits of stick or any other 

 rubbish lying upon the sand, and the male cannot easily be 

 induced to fly in the daytime, indeed, will fall down as 

 though dead when touched, yet there are occasions when it. 

 buzzes at this period in hot sunshine, or even in windy, 

 showery weather, a few inches above the ground, and has thus 

 been knocked down with an umbrella. About sunset it flies 

 naturally, buzzing swiftly over the same ground in search of 

 the female, which is quite inert and makes no attempt to 

 shelter or conceal itself. The male also flies at night, and 

 has been known to come to a gas-lamp. The eggs are laid 

 in masses, in grass sheaths, and the whole life of the creature 

 is probably spent in a space of a few feet in extent. Conse- 

 quently it is excessively local, frequenting coast sand-hills, 

 but there only in quite isolated spots in some hollows of the 

 hills, but in these favoured places it is to be found in multi- 

 tudes, not perhaps in equal abundance every year. There 

 are few species more sluggish ; if reared in confinement and 



