TRIFIDM. -97 



clover, dock, mullein, and doubtless many others ; feeding 

 at night and hiding by day under ground ; but in dull 

 weather, if fresh food is placed on the surface of the ground 

 and shaded from the light, it has been found that it would 

 be eaten readily by day. When very young, and until about 

 half an inch in length, feeding exposed without burrowing 

 in the ground. (W. Buckler.) Later it passes the daylight 

 under ground like its congeners. 



Pupa of ordinary form, rather stout and very smooth ; 

 light orange-brown. In a slight earthen chamber under- 

 ground. 



The moth conceals itself upon the ground among thick 

 plants and leaves during the day ; flying vigorously at late 

 dusk and through the night. The male is strongly attracted 

 by light, and may often be seen circling in wild excitement 

 round a gas-lamp. Both sexes come readily to sugar, and 

 even with far more eagerness to the blossoms of the lime, 

 privet, valerian, and other flowering plants. 



Never an abundant species, but fairly common in many of 

 the coast counties, as Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent, Sussex, 

 Hants, Dorset ; less common in Gloucestershire, Somerset, 

 Devon, and Cornwall ; also in South Wales, where it has 

 occurred at Swansea and in Pembrokeshire. Inland it is 

 common in Surrey, and formerly might often be found on 

 the gas-lamps of the London suburban districts ; less 

 frequent in Berks and Oxfordshire and in the Cambridge 

 fen district, where it is rather uncertain in its appearance. 

 Apparently absent from a large portion of the Midland 

 Counties, though found rarely in Warwickshire and North 

 Staffordshire. Also found in Herefordshire, Cheshire, 

 Lancashire, and some localities in Yorkshire, though not 

 generally. In Scotland in Ayrshire ; in Moray and other 

 parts of the Eastern districts ; also in Perthshire, where Sir 

 Thomas Moncrieff found that it attained on the hills an 

 altitude of 600 feet above the sea-level. Local and by no 



