St-j S", Vo^ 



96 BRITISH MOTHS 



winof, followed by a dull straw-coloured striga dilated towards the costa, and an indistinct subapical striga of the 

 same colour; hind wings brown with straw-coloured strigae. Taken in chalky places in July and August. 



^ Synonyme. — Pyralis cespitalis^ Fabricius ; Haworth ; Stephens ; Wood, fig. 791. 



Species 6. — Pyrausta sordidalis* — (Plate LXXVI., Fig. 18) — Measures 7 or 8 lines in expanse; and is 

 closely allied to the preceding, from which it diifers in its much more uniform colour ; the clouds very indistinct, 

 and the straw-coloured marks nearly obliterated. Taken in chalky and grassy places throughout the summer 

 months. 



f Synonyme. — Pyralis sordidaliSj H^'worth ; Hubner ; Stephens; Wood, fig. 792. 



DIASEMIA, Hubner, Stephens. HYDROCAMPA, Pars, Stephens, (Cat.) 

 The species of this and the four following groups constitute a very interesting section of the present family, 

 distinguished by their prettily variegated wings, whence they have received the name of China-marks : 

 they are aquatic in their larva state, and in the imago there is considerable difference in the structure of their 

 palpi as well as in the form of their wing. The type of this present group has the labial palpi porrected into a 

 beak, with the extremity rather drooping ; the fore wings are very acute, and slightly falcate, and the maxillary 

 palpi are slightly developed. 



Species 1. — Diasemia literalis = — (Plate LXXVI., Fig. 19)^Measures about three quarters of an inch 

 (in expanse ; wings brown, clouded with darker shades of brown ; the anterior with an oblique white streak at 

 the base, with a curious white central mark, resembling an Arabic character, in the middle ; beyond this a white 

 striga, bent outwards, and a slender white line next the costa, at the apex ; hind wings, brown with two 

 whitish strigae, the second much angulated, and interrupted. Taken in June in moist places, Darenth Wood, 

 Kent, and the New Forest. 



s Synonyme.- — Pyralis literalis, Wien. Verz. ; Hubner ; Haworth ; Stephens ; Wood, fig. 798. 

 PhaltBna reticularis, Linnseus ; Faun. Suec. 



HYDROCAMPA, Latreille. NYMPHULA, Schrank. 

 The species of this group have the labial palpi recurved, short, and very scaly ; the antennae simple, but with 

 the tips slightly serrated ; the wings pale, marked with large dark double circles and streaks ; the fore ones with 

 the tips not falcate. The apical margin slightly rounded. The caterpillars are slender, 16-footed, residing in 

 cases formed of pieces of the leaves of water plants, on which they feed. 



Species 1. — Hydrocampa (Nymphula, Hub.) Potamogata'' — (Plate LXXVI., Fig. 20) — Varies from 

 1 to 14 inch in expanse; wings pale fulvous brown ; the fore ones with large patches of white surrounded by brown 

 lines, and these by white edges ; hind wings, with tlie base, and a broad fascia across the middle, of white ; the 

 ''T'V^*^" latter with a patch of fulvous in the middle ; along the apical margin of all the wings is a row of white, oblong 

 dots more or less confluent : th markings of the wings are very variable as well as the shades of colour. The 

 motii appears in June, July, and August, in marshes and on the edges of ditches, &c., and is very abundant. 



^ Synonymes. — Phalcsna Geometra potamogata, LinnJcus ; i Harris, Exposition, pi. 8, fig. 2 ; Stephens ; Wood, fig. 799. 

 Donovan, XI. pi. 363, fig. 1 ; Harris, Auielian, pi. 41, fig. — 9; I Pyralis Nymphealis, Hubner., 



