20 LEPIDOPTERA. 



plants, all with their heads toward the sun, basking in the 

 warmth, and so sensitive that on the least disturbance, or 

 only on the approach of an intruder, every head would 

 instantly be raised and thrown back. After the last moult 

 the companies separate, and the larvas feed up singly, and 

 may be found so, nearly full fed, almost all over the 

 marshes." 



Pupa rather short and thick, narrowing suddenly at the 

 eleventh and twelfth segments, and with the thirteenth rather 

 prolonged, but blunt ; antenna-cases and wing-covers very 

 distinct ; the thicker abdominal segments covered with short 

 fine prostrate whitish bristles, general colour dull black. 

 In a long spindle-shaped cocoon of tough silk, thin and 

 semi-transparent, but enclosed in an outside looser silken 

 covering, and provided with a quantity of loose yellowish 

 powder, which appears to be produced from the intestine of 

 the larva. Among plants and grasses, more especially the 

 stiff hard grasses along the edge of the salt marshes. 



The moth is very rarely observed on the wing, though it 

 doubtless flies over the salt marshes at night. It has, how- 

 ever, been known to visit a strong light near the shore. Its 

 home in this country is in a very restricted district — Graves- 

 end, Erith, Southend, Shoeburyness, Sheerness, and generally 

 the salt marshes of the estuaries of the Thames and Medway, 

 situated in Kent and Essex. Probably also on the coast of 

 Suffolk. Dr. Hele wrote, a few years ago, " Formerly abund- 

 ant near the Haven at ThorjDe, Suffolk, but has totally dis- 

 appeared, probably from the sea having broken in during a 

 heavy gale and flooded the plain." I know of no other 

 localities in the United Kingdom. Abroad it is very widely 

 distributed over the greater part of the Continent of Europe, 

 Asia Minor, Northern Persia, Armenia, and Siberia, and is in no 

 degree restricted to salt marshes, but inhabits woods and 

 heaths and open waste ground, feeding on oak, birch, black- 



