TRIP ID AC. 137 



vivacity at Aw^k, and like so many species having broadly 

 pectinated antenna?, is very strongly attracted by light. On 

 the other hand it is never known to come to sugar or to 

 llowers, or indeed to take nourishment in any way. The 

 female is less active, its body is very heavy, larger in pro- 

 portion than that of any other European Nodua, and 

 apparently it tlies but little; at night it may be found 

 sitting on the large tufts of hard grasses in rough pastures, 

 especially affecting Nardas drida, and in such situations 

 both sexes may readily be secured by the aid of a lantern. 

 My own very fine examples were so obtained by Major A. 

 Ficklin, in Surrey. 



Apparently found all over England and Wales, often 

 commonly, but more especially attached to rough pasture- 

 laud and open fields and parks. Much less common in 

 Scotland, and in the west hardly known beyond the border, 

 but not absent from Perthshire, and on the eastward extend- 

 ing to Aberdeenshire. In Ireland it is more generally dis- 

 tributed and sometimes abundant. 



Abroad its rauo-e is not so northern as that of the last 



o 



species, but it is common in Central Europe, South Sweden, 

 Southern Russia, Livonia, Siberia, and Armenia. 



2. H. cespitis, i^«^.— Expanse Ij to li inch. Fore 

 wings black-brov^n with blacker nervures ; subterminal line 

 and edges of upper stigmata yellowish ; hind wings white in 

 the male, grey-brown in the female. 



Antenna? of the male pectinated with short, sharp, solid, 

 ciliated teeth of a light brown, the shaft blackish but whitish 

 along the back; palpi short, broadly tufted, blackish-brown; 

 apical joint small and slender ; head and thorax densely 

 tufted, glossy blackish-umbreous ; collar and shoulder lappets 

 rather raised, crest when visible a small ridcfe with two little 

 knobs at the back, but often imperceptible, the scales lying 

 loosely apart ; fascicles brownish-white ; basal segments of 

 the abdomen covered with long pale smoky-brown scales, 



