282 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



of Freyer, Herrich-Schseffer, 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 Rosy Eustic (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 colour 

 of the head is testaceous red, of the body 

 grayish flesh-coloui-, 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 

 fifth and follgwing 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 

 claspers are nearly concolorous with the 

 ventral area. It feeds at the base of the leaves 

 of sedges (Carex, Cyperus, <c.), 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 upwards, 

 and distinctly separate, the terminal joint is 

 very short ; the antennae are simple in both 

 sexes : the fore wings are narrow, straight on 

 the costa, rounded at the tip, and having 

 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 mai'gin ; 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 8, the 

 middle being a bent gi'ay 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 



