TRIFIDM. ti 



segment are nuited behiuci, at their bases, by au ochreous 

 transverse dasli ; usual dorsal spots minute, whitish, each 

 placed in a blackish shade ; a small blackish blotch beside 

 the dorsal line at each incision, is often produced backwards 

 to the subdorsal dash, thus forming an indistinct diamond- 

 shaped mark ; spiracular stripe broad, pale brownish-grey or 

 brownish-ochreous ; above it is a dark olive-grey waved 

 stripe ; the spiracles are whitish, and are situated at the 

 junction of these stripes, each placed in a curved blackish 

 blotch. Undersurface ochreous reticulated with grey and 

 dotted with black, as also are the sides and spiracular stripes. 

 Head pale brown reticulated with black and having a black 

 dash down the middle of each lobe ; legs pale brown ; anal 

 Hap and prolegs blackish. (C Fenn.) 



September to ^lay, on Arum, Afriplc.r, Matricaria . chick- 

 weed, dock, and low plants generally, and in the spring on 

 sallow, hawthorn, and the young shoots of elm ; feeding at 

 night ; hidden among low plants and dead leaves on the 

 ground in the daytime. 



l^UPA rather stout, very glossy, wing covers and segmental 

 divisions well defined, antenna cases barred throughout with 

 ridges, anal extremity bluntly rounded, and having a pair of 

 slender spikes, curved at their tips ; general colour dark 

 chestnut, dorsal portion rather darker. In a fragile cocoon 

 of earth, underground. 



The moth hides in the daytime in hedges and dense foliage, 

 or among herbage, and may occasionally be disturbed by 

 beating thick bushes and masses of ivy. In very hot weather 

 it sometimes liies vigorously along hedges toward sunset. Its 

 normal time of Hight, however, is at late dusk and after dark, 

 and it is strongly attracted by the blossoms of ragwort, tansy, 

 burdock, and in gardens by cultivated Vero7iica. Where no 

 attractive flowers are within reach it will come to sugar, but 

 seldom in any numbers. Of general occurrence in woods, 

 lanes, fields, and even gardens, throughout the greater part 



