1 88 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



before the middle of the wing and placed above the inner 

 margin, and four beyond the middle in an oblique series from 

 the costa ; the hind wings are pale brownish-grey, becoming 

 somewhat darker towards the apex. (Plate 99, Fig. 5.) 



Caterpillar velvety blackish-brown, marbled with reddish- 

 grey ; stripe along middle of the back, and a line on each side 

 of it deep black ; warts and hairs brown, the latter short but 

 numerous ; a pair of red spots on ring one, and another pair on 

 ring twelve ; beneath the spiracles is a fine reddish-grey line ; 

 under surface pinkish grey ; head small and blackish (Buckler). 

 So far it has escaped detection in its fenny home, but it has been 

 reared from eggs laid by a captured female. Caterpillars 

 obtained in this way seem to have thrived on a mixed diet of 

 lichens, mosses, and withered leaves of bramble and sallow, 

 August to May. Buckler states that the dark chestnut-brown 

 pupa is enclosed in a double cocoon, the inner a webby one of 

 greyish silk, and the outer one thinner and composed of white 

 silk. The whole affair was formed in a curled-up bramble 

 leaf. The caterpillar is figured on Plate 98, Fig. 5. 



The moth is out in late July and through August. It has 

 besn obtained in a certain marshy locality in the New Forest, 

 Hants, and also in some marshes at Sandwich, Kent. Its chief 

 haunts are, however, in the fens of Norfolk, such as those on the 

 river Bure, and Brundall fen on the Yare, but Horning and 

 Ranworth are, perhaps, the headquarters of the species. It 

 may be mentioned that when Stephens wrote about this insect 

 in 1829 only two specimens had then occurred in Britain, and 

 these had been found in a marsh at Horning floating upon the 

 water in a ditch. 



Distribution : Central Europe, Denmark, Sweden, Livonia, 

 Dalmatia, Corsica and Sardinia, Amurland and Japan. 



