252 LEPIDOPTERA. 



front to receive the head ; body otherwise almost uniformly 

 cylindrical, wrinkled transversely, has an interrupted lateral 

 skin-fold, and is garnished with sprinkled bristles ; colour of 

 the head pale serai-pellucid brown, irrorated with black dots, 

 most of which are arranged in an ill-defined stripe on the 

 middle of each cheek ; colour of the body grey-brown, with, 

 numerous black dots which form very irregular and inter- 

 rupted rivulet lines down the back ; there are also six series 

 of small blotches of a rich mahogany-brown, like the nut of 

 the horse-chestnut when recently exposed ; two of these are 

 dorsal, two lateral (one on each side), and two ventral ; there 

 are also on the ventral area, between each pair of chestnut 

 blotches, two closely approximate black streaks ; these 

 streaks are connected in double pairs, thus forming two 

 interruptedly approximate ventral series ; legs pellucid pale 

 brown, sprinkled with black dots ; ventral prolegs grey 

 dotted with black ; anal prolegs of the same colour, with a 

 whitish exterior streak. It rests in a straight and stick-like 

 position attached by its prolegs to its food plant, the rest of 

 the body standing straight out, and so exactly resembles the 

 twigs of the ling, in size and colour, that it is impossible for 

 the uneducated eye to detect it. 



June and July, and a partial second generation in Septem- 

 ber and October on Calluna vulgaris (heather or ling) ; 

 feeding at night. 



The moth hides during the day among heather, clinging 

 closely to the stems, and almost clasping its wings round 

 them ; the wings are so drawn down that the fore pair almost 

 entirely overlap, the hind are unusually folded, and the 

 creature almost resembles a narrow half-cylinder. If the 

 sun is very hot it may sometimes be trodden up, when it will 

 fly a short distance, to hide again in the same manner. Just 

 after sunset, when the multitudes of GclccMa ericctella, 

 Pleicrota bicostella, Fidonia atomaria, and other common 

 species have settled down to rest, and the heath seems bare 



