TRIFID^E. 133 



Larva rather elongate, slightly attenuated in front and 

 swollen behind, having a few scattered dark bristles ; head 

 rounded and shining, green dusted with purple; body dull 

 grass-green with a blackish tinge on the sides and under- 

 surface ; dorsal stripe of the ground colour, distinctly edged 

 with white, these white lines converging on the third 

 segment; subdorsal line white, and between these runs an 

 irregular whitish thread-line; spiracular stripe conspicuous, 

 pale yellow or yellowish-white ; raised dots white ; legs and 

 prolegs tipped with purplish-grey. When young all the pale 

 markings are yellow or yellowish. (0. Fenn.) 



September to June on heather (Calluna vulgaris), whortle- 

 berry ( Vaccinium myrtillus), and V. uliginosum. 



Pupa elongate, tapering, a projection or elongation of the 

 tongue-case lies above the front of the abdomen; anal 

 extremity hooked ; colour dark pitchy-brown, the incisions 

 of the segments tinged with green. In a thin cocoon of 

 white silk among heather twigs. 



The moth sits in the daytime head downwards upon the 

 stems of heather on heaths and moors, especially the dead 

 stems of burnt heather, or occasionally upon some other 

 plant, or even on a stone or rock or stump of a tree, or even 

 upon a stone wall, and is very restless, flying swiftly away 

 if disturbed, to settle again at a short distance. Occasionally 

 it will fly to flowers in the hot sunshine, and its movements 

 then are very wild and swift. Its ordinary flight, however, 

 is at dusk, when it visits the blossoms of honeysuckle, wood- 

 sage, privet, and the " melancholy " thistle (Garduus hetero- 

 phyllus). A species of northern distribution, attached to 

 heathery mosses, moors, and mountain sides, yet found on 

 rare occasions in most unexpected places, as, for instance, 

 a specimen which was secured at Battle, Sussex, in 1870, by 

 Mr. J. H. A. Jenner, and exhibited soon after at a meeting 

 of the Entomological Society of London; and another by 

 Mr. A. Eobinson on a gas-lamp at Cambridge ; while two 



