SERICORIDA^:—ERIOPSELA. 77 



"basal blotch squared grej^-black, augulated outwardly ; 

 central band of the same colour, slender, irregular but 

 oblique, often cut ofE below the middle, and thence obsolete ; 

 costa and apex dotted with black ; cilia leaden grey. Hind 

 wings and their cilia leaden white. Female smaller with 

 narrower fore wings, the markings more distinct and sharp, 

 red-brown ; ground-colour paler. Hind wings also rather 

 paler. 



Underside of the fore wings leaden black, paler towards 

 the dorsal margin. Hind wings leaden grey. 



There is a little local variation in size, specimens from 

 Sutherlandshire and the Hebrides being rather large. 



On the wing in April and May, and as a second generation 

 from -July to September. 



Larva dirty green with darker raised dots, dark brown 

 head ; dorsal plate yellow edged with paler. (Hofmann.) 



June, and a second generation in August and September, 

 on Scabiosa succisa and S. columbaria, feeding in autumn on 

 the spun-together vertical leaves, but in the earlier brood on 

 the stems and flower-heads. Sorhagen says that it passes 

 the winter in a cocoon in the earth. 



This species especially frequents chalky places, sitting 

 during the day among grass and low-growing plants, but is 

 readily disturbed by a passing footstep, and flies in a lively 

 manner before dusk. Eather local, but sometimes abund^int 

 in its restricted localities, which are especially in the Southern 

 counties— Kent, Sussex, Surrey, the Isle of Wight, Dorset 

 and Somerset— also, but much less commonly, in the Eastern 

 Counties, and Oxfordshire, and Westward in Gloucestershire, 

 Cheshire, North Lancashire, and Westmoreland, and a single 

 specimen has been taken in Durham. In Scotland it is 

 found, more frequently, in the Clyde district and in Argyle- 

 shire and Sutherlandshire as well as in the Hebrides. Abroad 



