272 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



this work. (The scientific name is Nonagria 

 brevilinea.) 



Obs. I can do nothing more than quote the 

 description, without expressing any opinion 

 as to the validity of the species. 



460. The Large Wainscot (Calamia lutosa). 



460. THE LARGE WAINSCOT. The antennae 

 are slightly ciliated in the male, which gives 

 them the appearance of being much stouter 

 than those of the female, but in both sexes 

 they are rather stouter than in the congeneric 

 species : the fore wings have the costa slightly 

 arched beyond the middle, the tip rather 

 pointed, and the outline of the hind margin 

 waved ; their usual colour is very pale 

 wainscot-brown, the wing-rays being still 

 paler, and the interspaces in the immediate 

 r *cinity of the rays being sprinkled with 

 _>lack ff ;s ; beyond the middle of the wing 

 is a curved series of six or seven black spots, 

 all of them seated or wing- r ays ; the ground 

 colour aften varies x> redtiih-och/ eous, and 

 sometimes to sienna-brown ; the nmd wings 

 are pearly white, sprinkled with dark brown 

 or black scales, and frequently, but not con- 

 stantly, having a median transverse series of 

 dark spots, all of them seated on wing-rays : 

 the head and thorax are usually very pale 

 wainscot-brown, but vary with the colour of 

 the fore wings ; the body is pearly white, 

 jlightly tinged with wainscot-brown. 



The EGG is laid in August, September, 

 '.nd even occasionally so late as October, 

 on the stems of the common reed (Arundo 

 Phragmites), and the young CATERPILLAR very 

 shortly emerges, and eats into the stem, 

 descending towards the roots, on which it 

 feeds, below the surface of the ground : it 

 feeds during the remainder of the autumn, 



and probably also throughout the winter and 

 spring, ceasing and remaining in a quiescent 

 state only during severe frost : when full-fed, 

 it gnaws its way upwards, and j ust above the 

 surface of the earth it erodes the reed-stem, 

 in a circular form, sufficiently large to admit 

 of the escape of the moth, but invariably 

 leaving a thin epidermal layer of cuticle, just 

 sufficient to prevent the influx of water in 

 flood-time, but offering very slight resistance 

 to the moth, when, having accomplished its 

 final change in August, it is prepared to enter 

 on its new career. The caterpillar is full-fed 

 about midsummer : the head is then exserted 

 and porrected in crawling, and is nearly equal 

 in width to the second segment ; it is semi- 

 globose, prominent, and glabrous ; the body is 

 very long, maggot-like, flabby, and gradually 

 attenuated towards the anal extremity ; there 

 is a corneous, glabrous, dorsal plate on the 

 second segment ; the dorsal surface is trans- 

 versely wrinkled when at rest, and has a 

 lateral skinfold ; small bristles are scattered 

 over the body, more especially on the 

 thirteenth segment. The colour of the head 

 is clear chestnut-brown, with black labrum 

 and mandibles : the body is pale flesh-colour ; 

 the ventral paler than the dorsal surface ; the 

 legs and claspers of the same pale hue as 

 the ventral surface. It changes to a smooth 

 brown CHRYSALIS in the interior of the reed. 

 The MOTH appears on the wing in August, 

 and has been taken in many of our English 

 counties: it has the same predilection for 

 the common reed (Arimdo Phragmites) as 

 Nonagria Typhce has for the reed-mace. (The 

 scientific name is Calamia lutosa.} 



461. The Fen Wainscot (Calamia Phragmitidis). 



461. THE FEN WAINSCOT. The antennae 

 are scarcely different in the two sexes : the 

 fore wings are rather produced at the tip, but 



