68 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



The species is more especially a denizen of Ireland and 

 Scotland, but it occurs in most of the northern counties of 

 England, and has been recorded from Worcestershire and 

 Herefordshire ; also from Carmarthenshire in South Wales. 



Abroad, its range extends to Central Asia ; and in Amurland 

 and Japan it is represented by P. excelsa, Kretschmar. 



The Gold Spot (Ph/sia festncce). 



In this species (Plate 24, Figs. 3 and 4) the fore wings are 

 golden brown, clouded with purplish brown ; sometimes the 

 purplish brown is confined almost entirely to the broad area. 

 Besides the large central metallic marks, there are more or less 

 conspicuous patches of metallic colour at the base of the costa, 

 on the middle of the inner margin, and towards the tips of the 

 wings. Usually the central spots are clearly apart, but I have 

 one example from Bishop Auckland, Durham, in which they 

 are only separated one from the other by a slender brown line. 



The caterpillar is green, with a white-edged dark-green line 

 along the middle of the back, and some slender yellowish lines 

 on each side of it ; a whitish or yellow tinged stripe low down 

 along the sides ; head, tinged with brown. 



It feeds on sedge, coarse grasses, bur-reed {^Spay-ganium 

 rainosum)^ and yellow-flag {Iris pseudacorus) ; also said by 

 Collins to eat water plantain {Alisma planfago) : April to June, 

 and in some localities and seasons, again in July and August, 

 The black chrysalis is enclosed in a rather long greyish cocoon, 

 spun up on the undersides of the leaves of sedge or reed ; usually 

 placed towards the tip of the leaf, which droops over and so 

 hides it. 



The moth is out in June and July, and in some years there 

 seems to be an emergence in August and September ; this has 

 been more particularly noted in Cheshire, where Arkle has had 

 moths emerge in June, July, August, and September. A second 



