154 OBSERVATIONS ON TINEINA. 



middle of May. In 1867 the first made its appearance the 

 beginning of May, and it continued till after the 20th of that 

 month. With us the trees are just unfolding their leaves 

 when this species occurs, and when the woods have assumed 

 their summer dress Pyrausta is over. It flies of its own 

 accord in the mid-day sun, though from its dark colour- 

 ing is very hard to see, but it is not to be started from the 

 grass by beating, and, to avoid pursuit, lies still as though 

 dead. I have met with it singly about 10 a.m. on grass 

 stems or low down on the trunks of trees. The smaller $ is 

 very difficult to find, since it seems to fly very rarely. In the 

 course of several years, though I have taken many of the $ , 

 I only found one $ in the grass. Its head-quarters was the 

 margin of a broad ditch, which was richly decked with a 

 variety of plants and surrounded by young trees. Amongst 

 the lower plants on the borders of this ditch I had my sus- 

 picions that Thalictrum aquilegifolium was possibly the food 

 of the lai'va, because in the neighbourhood this plant did not 

 again occur, no more did the Pyrausta. In 1866 I had the 

 good fortune to find the larva of Pyrausta on the Thalic- 

 trum in July. It lives singly, though there are frequently 

 from two to four on one plant, exposed on the surface of the 

 leaves, and drops down directly the plant is shaken ; on the 

 ground it wi'iggles about actively and speedily escapes. It 

 has the usual form and varied colouring of the larvae of the 

 genus Psecadia. Orange-yellow spots on the darker ground 

 colour form several longitudinal stripes along the back and 

 sides ; I cannot however describe it more in detail from 

 recollection. 



*''It is easily reared, but the larvae are often ichneumoned. 

 From the larvae I obtained almost as many females as males. 

 The cocoon is white, the pupa black-brown. 



*' The last larvae spun up towards the end of August. 



