282 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



of Freyer, Herrich-Schaeffer, and Guenee, the 

 last of whom treats our English insect as a 

 variety, and retains Mr. Doubleday's name to 

 the variety only : as this name has the claim 

 of priority, and as I am unable to distinguish 

 between the type and the variety, I retain the 

 earlier name for the species. 



473. The Eosy Rustic (Hydrcecia micacea). 



473. THE ROSY RUSTIC. The palpi are short 

 and inconspicuous ; the antennae very slightly 

 stouter in the males : the fore wings have the 

 costa very straight, the top pointed, and the 

 hind margin waved but scarcely scalloped ; 

 their colour is rich reddish brown, with a 

 broad median band, the limits of which, as 

 well as those of the orbicular and reniform 

 spots, are clearly mapped out in outline ; the 

 outer portion of the median band is very rich 

 dark brown; the space following the outer 

 portion is much paler, but gradually deepens 

 in tint to the hind margin, which is marked 

 by a waved darker line ; the hind wings are 

 dingy gray-brown with a darker crescentic 

 discoidal spot and transverse median bar ; the 

 antennae are nearly white ; the head and thorax 

 of the same colour as the fore wings ; the body 

 of the same colour as the hind wings. 



The head of the CATERPILLAR is rather 

 narrower than the second segment ; it is 

 glabrous and porrected, and has a rather flat 

 face : the body is soft, fleshy, and maggot-like, 

 the segments being distinctly marked; each 

 has sixteen or eighteen minute black warts, 

 and each wart emits a minute but rather stiff 

 bristle ; there is a corneous glabrous plate on 

 the second and thirteenth segments ; the col our 

 of the head is testaceous red, of the body 

 grayish flesh-colour, with a very narrow darker 

 medio- dorsal stripe; the dorsal has more 

 colour than the ventral surface, which has a 



glaucous or bleached appearance; the warts 

 on the third and fourth segments are arranged 

 in transverse dorsal series, but not so on the 

 fifih and following segments, including the 

 twelfth ; on these segments the dots usually 

 form something like a triangle on each side of 

 the medio-dorsal stripe, and three others form 

 a linear series below them ; the warts, as 

 well as the bristles, are black : the legs and 



* * O 



claspers are nearly concolorous with the 

 ventral area. It feeds at the base of the leaves 

 of sedges (Carex, Cyperus, <fcc.), but leaves this 

 situation and buries itself in the earth in order 

 to change to a CHRYSALIS. 



The Rosy Rustic appears in the MOTH state 

 throughout the autumn ; there seems to be a 

 succession of emergences, as in the case of so 

 many internal feeders ; it has been taken in 

 most of our English counties. Mr. Birchall 

 says it is common and widely distributed in 

 Ireland ; and Mr. Douglas Robinson gives it as 

 a native of Kirkcudbrightshire, in Scotland. 

 (The scientific name is Hydrcecia micacea.) 



474. The Flame (Axylia putris). 



474. THE FLAME. The palpi are short, 

 rather inconspicuous, slightly curved up wards, 

 and distinctly separate, the terminal joint is 

 very short; the antennas are simple in both 

 sexes : the fore wings are narrow, straight on 

 the costa, rounded at the tip, and haviiig 

 the hind margin very slightly waved ; their 

 colour is pale wainscot-brown, with a dark 

 umber-brown costal margin, and two blotches 

 of the same colour on the hind margin ; the 

 upper of these is somewhat wedge-shaped, the 

 point of the wedge being directed towards the 

 reniform spot ; the lower, near the anal angle, 

 is smaller and almost round ; the reniform spot 

 is indistinctly shaped like the letter S, the 

 middle being a bent gray line, and surrounded 

 by a black line, this again by a pale line, and 

 last by a slender dark brown border; the 

 orbicular is very inconspicuous, but has the 



