THE P.EDSTRAW HAWK. 39 



white, the basal area and a band before the outer margin 

 black ; the space enclosed is blotched, and sometimes tinged 

 with pinkish red ; but the extreme inner portion is almost pure 

 white. Head and thorax are olive-brown, edged with white ; 

 the abdomen is olive-brown, with a whitish line along the 

 middle of the back, and ornamented with black and white on 

 the sides. 



The full-grown caterpillar varies in colour from greenish 

 olive to pale olive-brown, reddish brown, or sometimes 

 blackish ; the spots on the back are yellowish, edged with 

 black, but occasionally these are absent. It feeds in Augtist 

 and September, on the bedstraws {Galium verum, G. mollugo^ 

 etc.), preferring the yellow-flowered kind that flourishes on 

 sandhills by the sea {G. verum, var. ma7-itimuni). It can be 

 reared very well on willow herb {Epilobmni) and on fuchsia. 



When ready for the change it burrows underground, and, 

 where the soil is sandy and light, it works down pretty 

 deeply before making the frail cell, in which it turns to a 

 reddish-brown chrysalis with blackish markings, somewhat 

 similar to those of the next species ; the anal spike is blackish, 

 rather flattened, terminating in a sharp point (Plate 14, 

 f^igs. I, \a). Haworth in 18 12 mentioned caterpillars from 

 Devonshire, and although single specimens of the moth seem 

 to have been taken here and there in various years between 

 that date and 1854, in only one year during that period was 

 it reported from several parts of the country. This was in 

 1834, when four moths were captured in August, and eight or 

 nine others seen at Yarmouth ; caterpillars were also found on 

 the bedstraw growing on the Denes. Odd examples of the 

 moth were observed that year in Lincolnshire, Somersetshire, 

 and in the Isle of Wight. In 1855-56, caterpillars were obtained 

 in August on the sandhills at Deal, and, in September, at Devon- 

 port in the first-named year. A moth was taken in May, 1857, 

 and, later in that year, specimens were captured at Deal 



