270 LEPIDOPTERA. 



on that evening found half a dozen, which, to my surprise, 

 were nearly full-fed, and on the succeeding evenings I took a 

 few more. They are very lethargic, not falling off their food 

 plant when touched, but requiring considerable persuasion to 

 induce them to quit their hold of the blade of grass on which 

 they may be feeding ; indeed, some held on so tightly that 

 it was necessary to break off the blade of grass in order to 

 take them. I found them generally at the bottom of the 

 slopes on the tufts of grass overhanging places where the 

 soil had been crumbled away by the action of the weather. 

 I placed some of the largest in a large glass bottle with some 

 two inches of sifted earth at the bottom, and saw that they 

 buried themselves entirely in the earth during the day, 

 coming up after dark to feed." 



Pupa rather dumpy in appearance, being broad across the 

 thorax, but the abdominal divisions much narrower, and 

 tapering sharply off to the anal point ; neither the head, leg, 

 nor wing-cases at all prominent, the whole surface being 

 rather evenly and bluntly rounded ; polished, almost uni- 

 formly bright red-brown. (G. T. Porritt.) In a compact 

 cocoon of earth and silk among the roots of the grass. In 

 this condition through the summer. 



The moth hides itself in the daytime on the ground at 

 the roots of grass. At night it sits on the grass stems at 

 about half their height, and is exceedingly sluggish. It is 

 very little noticed on the wing, but flies late at night and 

 comes occasionally to light. Neither flowers nor any kind of 

 sweets seem to have any attraction for it. Almost all the 

 specimens in collections have been found at night by the aid 

 of a lantern. As they sit about on the grass they are said 

 to look exactly like the little stones so abundant on the hill- 

 sides. Entirely confined to the sea-coast, frequenting the 

 grassy slopes either at the top of precipitous cliffs or down 

 the sides of those which are more accessible. First taken in 

 this country nearly fifty years ago in the Isle of Portland, 



