LTPARTD^. 315 



Larva rather short, cylindrical, of tolerably uniform thick- 

 ness ; head broad, rounded, dull brown, with numerous hairs 

 pointing^ forward ; second segment with two long tufts of 

 black hairs projecting forward over the head ; on the fifth to 

 the eighth segments are dense round flat-topped tufts or 

 brushes of upright hairs, of a light reddish colour, tipped 

 with dark grey ; the anal segment has a large and dense 

 spreading mass of blackish hairs pointing backward, and over 

 these is a long similar tuft arising on the twelfth segment ; 

 body dull olive-brown, with the dorsal stripe black, with 

 indistinct rows of subdorsal blackish rings, and a general 

 covering of reddish grey hairs ; legs and pro-legs pale brown. 



August to June on Cladium mariscus, Arundo phragmites, 

 and other fen grasses. 



Pupa undescribed ; in a long, slender, rather shuttle-shaped 

 cocoon, placed upon the stem of its food plant. 



The moth sits on fen plants in the daytime, and flies 

 rather late at night, having a soft, gentle flight. The male 

 is readily attracted by a strong light ; the female is said to 

 be very sluggish. It is reported to have been first found 

 in this country by the late Mr. J. 0. Dale, in the year 1819, 

 at Whittlesea Mere, and he afterwards met with it at Yaxley 

 and Burwell Fens. While Whittlesea Mere continued in 

 existence the insect was so plentiful that no particular interest 

 seems to have attached to it and it is hardly recorded, but 

 doubtless it had existed in that district from an early period. 

 In Wicken Fen also it was so plentiful that the sedge-cutters 

 collected and supplied any number of larvae at a shilling a 

 dozen, and in that Fen it was abundant so late as 1860, larvae, 

 pupae, and imagines all readily found in all parts of the Fen. 

 In 1865 it had become scarce, and the last larvae found 

 appear to have been in 1871, when two were taken. In 

 1873 Dr. F. D. Wheeler introduced at Wicken the powerful 

 attracting lamps now so much in use there, and in that year 

 the light was visited by forty of the moths, all males. By 



