184 LEPIDOPTERA. 



grass leaf. When full grown it may sometimes be obtained 

 by shaking the stems of the taller grasses in its favourite 

 haunts. 



Pupa short and stout, the wing-covers well denned and 

 rather long, the thorax full ; abdomen tapering obtusely to 

 the tip, which is furnished with two fine points and some 

 minute curly-topped bristles ; colour light drab, but in the 

 spring it becomes of a dark brownish-green and is rather 

 shining. In a cocoon just beneath the crown of grass-roots 

 almost close to the surface of the earth. The winter is passed 

 in this state. (W. Buckler.) 



The moth sits during the day among marsh grasses, sweet 

 gale and other herbage, and is readily disturbed in the after- 

 noon, flying rather heavily to a short distance and then settling- 

 down again. At sunset or early dusk it flies voluntarily, but 

 so far as I know has not been found to move about at night. 

 It is one of our most strictly local species, confined to fens 

 and bogs, but even in them to especially favoured spots only. 

 It appears to have been noticed in this country as early as 

 1775, and Fabricius described it (under the name of Pyralis 

 Bankianci) from British specimens. Mr. Haworth, however, 

 at the beginning of the present century knew it only as 

 represented in the cabinet of Mr. Swainson. Later he was 

 more fortunate, for Stephens says (Illust. 3, 118): "Mr. 

 Haworth found a considerable number of specimens in 

 Norfolk, I believe near Beachamwell, amongst reeds and 

 rushes in a boggy situation, and kindly supplied me with 

 specimens." It is said also to have occurred at Whittlesea 

 Mere before that rich collecting ground was destroyed. 

 Whether the Norfolk locality was correct or not seems now 

 doubtful, but no further occurrence of this species there is 

 on record, and it had become, as supposed, a lost species to 

 these islands when, somewhere about the year 1858, a visit 

 was paid to Killarney, in the extreme south-west of Ireland, 

 by Messrs. E. Birchall, A. A. Dunlop, and N. Cooke. One 



