194 LEFIDQPTERA. ^^ 



assumincy the pupa state. Said also to feed on the seeds of 

 Vicia sepium,Colutea arhoresccns,Sarothamnus,&n^Onobrychis. 



This is a species of which the larva is far too well-known 

 from the mischief that it does among green peas. The moth 

 is by no means so familiar an object, yet it may be found in 

 plenty sometimes along the hedges which bound a field 

 which has produced a crop of peas in the preceding year. 

 Here it loves to sit, in the bright sunshine, on oak and other 

 bushes, flying with extraordinary swiftness away if disturbed 

 to revel in the sunshine in another bush. Sometimes in 

 such a field the males may be found assembling about a 

 freshly emerged female. As it seems to be on the wing 

 throughout the day if the sunshine is hot, there seems no 

 reason to suppose that it flies also at dusk. Very abundant 

 in Surre}^ and other parts of the South of England, and to be 

 seen wherever peas are grown throughout the country ; and in 

 Scotland to Perthshire. In Ireland it is only recorded from 

 Wicklow, but doubtless occurs elsewhere. Abroad it is 

 common throughout Central and Southern Europe and Asia 

 Minor. 



2. E. gemmiferana, Tr. — Expanse | inch (16 mm.). 

 Fore wings somewhat trigonate, pointed at the apex ; olive 

 brown with numerous faint, silvery, in-egular lines, and pale 

 yellow costal dots. 



Antennae black-brown ; palpi, head, and thorax dark 

 brown; abdomen black-brown. Fore wings somewhat trigo- 

 nate, narrow at the base ; costa without fold, very gently 

 arched ; apex rather sharply angulated, hind margin 

 oblique and nearly straight; olive brown, thickly dusted behind 

 with yellow ; on the costa, commencing near the base, are 

 numerous slender, oblique, short black lines; in their inter- 

 spaces, in and beyond the middle, are seven or eight distinct 

 yellowish white dots, and also three or four lustrous leaden 

 lines ; two of them proceeding, after a bend, to the anal 



