STIGMONOTID^E— COCCYX 189 



tana, aSc/;?J.— Expanse f to | inch (10-13 mm.). Fore 

 wings blackish brown, banded and streaked throughout with 

 white. Antennas dark brown, whiter in front ; palpi and head 

 brownish white ; thorax brown, with white shoulder lappets ; 

 abdomen silvery-brown. Fore wings not broad ; costa folded 

 from the base and scarcely arched, apex bluntly angulated ; 

 dull brown with numerous white markings — some dots at the 

 base, two complete erect transverse bands before the middle ; 

 and two pairs of similar stripes beyond, each broken and 

 displaced half way across the wing ; hind margin edged 

 with a deep black line, and the cilia smoky-brown, both cut 

 through below the apex by a white dash. Bind wings and 

 their cilia pale smoky-brown. Female similar, or often with 

 the white markings brighter and more distinct. 



Underside leaden brown ; the costal dots of the fore wings 

 white. 



Variable in the depth of ground colour and very so in the 

 size and distinctness of the markings, which in some cases 

 are so small and indistinct that the wings are almost 

 uniformly black-brown. In another, very pretty, variety, 

 almost the whole surface has become pearly white, the dark 

 ground colour showing only in faint shadowy lines and 

 streaks. 



On the wing in May and the beginning of June. 



Larva pale pink with bright red sub-dorsal lines; head 

 light brown, dorsal plate black ; feet brown-black. 



August and September and till spring in the needles of 

 spruce-fir [Pinus abies), eating them out and joining them 

 together in loose untidy bundles, with silk, in which its 

 excrement gets entangled. Leaving these bundles when full 

 fed to spin up on the ground. 



The moth may usually be found about every spruce-fir 

 tree in plenty. It sits in the branches and is to be disturbed, 

 often in clouds, by the beating-stick, but flies about the 

 twigs a little in the afternoon sunshine. Common through- 



