TRIFIDJE.. 275 



purplish-brown head, the body pale green and translucent, 

 the visible internal organs giving the appearance of a dark 

 grey stripe down the back ; dark brown plates on the 

 second and anal segments ; and the tubercular spots distinct, 

 blackish, each with a long dark brown hair. 



A full-grown larva sent him from Scotland was of a bright 

 olive-green, the dorsal stripe blackish from the fifth to the 

 twelfth segments, and on each of these segments a black 

 streak in front of the upper edge of the subdorsal line ; the 

 usually violet slender spiracular line being black. Variations 

 in the larva appear in this case to run parallel with those of 

 the moth. 



September or October to May or June, hibernating when 

 very small. On Foa annva, Aira ccspitosa, and other grasses ; 

 also on dock, plantain, heather, mint, groundsel, chickweed, 

 marigold, Potentilla fragariadrum, Scahiosa arvensis, Litlw- 

 spcrmum arvensc, and in the spring on the unexpanded 

 leaf-buds of blackthorn and hawthorn. Feeding at night ; 

 resting in the daytime stretched out on stems of grass or the 

 underside of the leaves of its other food plants. Mr. Fenn 

 says that when at rest it does not use its anal prolegs, but 

 extends them straight out or in an arch ; but at the slightest 

 alarm curls up and falls to the ground. 



Pupa apparently undescribed. 



The moth is rarely taken in the daytime, apparently hiding 

 itself among herbage. At dusk it flies and comes readily to 

 ivy-bloom and to sugar, and in its more northern and western 

 localities to the blossoms of ragwort. Apparently it emerges 

 from the pupa some days or weeks earlier in the north than 

 in the south. Very uncertain in its appearances : Mr. W. 

 Holland records that within his knowledge it completely 

 disappeared from a locality near Reading in which he had 

 found it commonly, yet after thirteen years reappeared in 

 similar plenty. It is certainly very local, seems to prefer 

 sandy coasts, or chalky localities or greensand, inland, and 



