A LIST OF MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA. 74 



extrema, by Hubner, and the description by Treitschke, 

 could not, by any twisting, be made to fit my insect. After 

 that Bondii found itself unmolested for a time ; recently, 

 however, Colonel Macchio, of the Austrian army, having 

 found the insect on Mount Parnassus, came to the conclusion, 

 after comparing it with the Royal collection at Vienna, that 

 it really was the extrema of Hiibner after all. Still later, 

 however. Dr. Staudinger, of Dresden, has carefully examined 

 both Hiibner's and Treitschke's types, and his unimpeachable 

 decision is that Bondii is a good new species ; and that it is 

 the concolor of Guenee, which is identical with extrema ; 

 so that at last Bondii survives, notwithstanding the severity of 

 the tests which have been applied to it. 



The perfect insect appears from the end of June to the 

 end of July, and inhabits the slopes below St. Mary's Church ; 

 it is on the wing before dusk, and after a short flight of 

 twenty minutes or half-an-hour, settles down on the leaves 

 and stems of its food plants, where it may be observed by 

 the aid of a lantern, singly and in pairs, and boxed in the 

 usual manner. 



The caterpillar feeds in the root end of the stems of a 

 local coast grass, known to botanists as Festuca arundinacea, 

 wherein it changes to a chrysalis. The eggs which are pale 

 yellowish, are deposited between the leaf sheaths and stems 

 of the food ; the little larvae are at first hairy, but become 

 smooth after piercing a layer or two of the plant on their way 

 to the pith. 



The next is a Noctua, evidently from the very peculiar 

 pectinated form of its antennae, new to the British list ; but 

 unfortunately the only example I secured of it (on the fence 

 near the Junction station early in June, 1861), is in such a 

 dilapidated state, that to identify it is impossible. It appears 

 to belong to the genus Pachetra, and from the structure of its 

 antennae one would suspect it to be a visitor at light. Col- 

 lectors would therefore do well to be on the look out for 

 it at street lamps, after 1 1 p.m. in the Autumn, or else after 

 hybernation, early in May. 



We now come to a singular slender-bodied moth. Aplasia 

 monaria, the extraordinary larval structure of which is ut- 

 terly subversive of our notions of a geometric caterpillar. A 

 single specimen of this curious species was discovered by my 



