1 62 LEPID OP TERA . 



ture ; wing-covers rather more dull than the remaining 

 surface, yet with scarcely perceptible sculpture ; anterior 

 portion of the segments minutely pitted, but the smooth 

 shining hinder band unusually wide ; anal segment very 

 bluntly rounded ; ere master rather flat, springing directly 

 from the smooth j)ortion, broad, and tapering very gracefully 

 to a sharp point, from which arise two minute bristles ; colour 

 wholly red-brown. In the earth. 



The moth sits during the day on rocks, especialh' under 

 overhanging ledges, or among any growth of furze or other 

 plants which overhang ; or in quarries, especially any holes 

 therein which furnish shelter — indeed, I have seen a dozen 

 specimens at a time sitting closely crowded together under 

 the roof of a quarryman's tool-hole — but where rocks are 

 absent it will sit. sometimes in abundance, on the sheltered 

 side of a peat or turf stack, among the protruding heath 

 sticks, or under the ledges ; or even, where this kind of 

 shelter is unobtainable, in cart tracks and gravel-pits on 

 heaths, or among heather, or the rough plants growing on a 

 hillside. From any of these shelters it is readily disturbed, 

 but only flies a short distance, to some similar hiding-place. 

 Its natural flight is at dusk and during the night ; it has 

 been known then to frequent the blossoms of clematis, and 

 is in some degree attracted by light. Its favourite haunts 

 are rocky sea-coasts, chalk and limestone hills, and extensive 

 heaths, but inland it is certainly a very local species ; some- 

 times common in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Dorset, Devon, 

 Cornwall, Somerset, and Berks ; in Gloucestershire on the 

 mountain limestone, also in Worcestershire and Hereford- 

 shire ; scarce in Norfolk, Sufiblk, and Essex ; ajiparently 

 absent fi-om the Midland Counties ; and found only on or 

 near the coast in Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Durham, 

 Northumberland, and Westmoreland. In Wales common on 

 many ])arts of the coast, and found also on the mountains. 

 In Scotland common in many places on the east coast, as at 



