1 8 LEPIDOPTERA. 



twelfth segment; head small, ronuded, shining ; anal prolegs 

 extended behind. Head pale brown with two dark brown 

 facial dashes and a smaller, similar dash toward the outside 

 of each lobe ; body greenish-grey marbled with ochreous ; 

 dorsal line threadlike, ochreous, but only distinct on the 

 anterior segments ; an indistinct series of curved pale sub- 

 dorsal dashes, these being broadly edged with black wedge- 

 shaped markings on the eleventh and twelfth segments ; 

 spiracular stripe broad, ochreous. margined above with 

 blackish which is produced into a black blotch round each of 

 the white spiracles ; dorsal spots whitish ; lateral spots black : 

 undersurface slightly paler than the ground colour, dusted 

 with black ; anal segment and prolegs shaded with grey 

 (C Fenn). \'ariation in colour also occurs in the larva, even 

 almost to black ; but such larvfip usually produce moths of 

 ordinary colouring. 



September to May on dock, plantain, clover, grasses, even 

 nettle, foxglove, and doubtless very many low-growing plants ; 

 but after hybernation also upon the opening buds and leaves 

 of sallow, hawthorn, blackthorn, and other trees, feeding only 

 at night, hiding during the day among dead leaves on the 

 ground, or under the lower leaves of plants. 



Pupa rounded, shining, anal extremity with a projecting 

 double bristle ; mahogany-red, incisions of segments tinged 

 with grey (0. Fenn). Underground, in a brittle earthen 

 chamber or cocoon. 



The moth hides in the daytime among dead leaves on the 

 ground, under herbage, in thick ivy, in thatch and under 

 almost every imaginable shelter, and may sometimes be 

 beaten out of thick overhanging banks on sandhills or else- 

 where, when if the sun is shining warmly it will fly briskly 

 awav ; otherwise it rolls down inert and then creeps into 

 another shelter. At night it flies vigorously, comes freely to 

 sugar, to composite flowers such as tansy, ragwort, and bur- 

 dock, to honeydew and to flowing sap. Found most abun- 



