202 The Grass or Antler Moth. By James Hardy. 



with two faintly-marked dusky lines along the line of the legs 

 and prologs ; tips of prologs dusky ; small shining black plates 

 in front and at base of the legs and prolegs. They are slow in 

 their movements, and quiescent when feeding ; when they fell 

 they sprawled restlessly, and then threw themselves into circles. 

 I observed that they were active in the sunshine when on their 

 travels. 



The grasses that accompanied the specimens were chiefly the 

 soft Yorkshire fog, Holms lanatus. I supplied them with fresh 

 grass, but they preferred for a time the herbage in which they 

 arrived, which they had cut into lengths of one or two inches. 

 They rejected white clover. Of the 1 1 only 4 became brown 

 chrysalids, 8 died, the other 4 had probably been devoured by 

 their stronger companions, as is customary with caterpillars when 

 confined together. The first became a chrysalis on July 17th, 

 and the others before the 25th. 



Two of the moths appeared on the morning of August 4th. 

 I did not supply them with any soil to enter, as they are accus- 

 tomed to do on their native hills. They underwent their changes 

 among the grass. The moths proved to be, as was suspected 

 from the first, a male and female of 

 the Antler Moth, Charceas Gramim's. 

 The female moth laid 146 eggs and 

 then died. ' The brownish moth is 

 from an inch to an inch and a half 

 in the spread of its wings. A longi- 

 tudinal white streak on the upper Antler Moth. 

 wings gives out three branches at the apex, suggesting a resem- 

 blance to the antler of a deer, whence the English name of the 

 species.' For a fuller description see Stainton's Manual, i., 204 ; 

 and for a figure and description, Newman's British Moths, p. 292. 

 I may, however, extract Mr Stainton's characters of the moth : — 

 ' Fore-wings brown, with a central vein whitish, conspicuously 

 so j ust beyond the middle, where it branches ; 8 stigmata ochreous 

 grey : the subterminal line is a row of blackish wedge-shaped 

 spots.' Length 1 in. 2 sec. to 1 in. 6 sec. Time of appearance, 

 beginning of July, August, beginning of September. 



As practical additions to these notices, I give extracts from 

 Miss Ormerod's graphic report on the attack made by the cater- 

 pillars of this moth on the pastures of Glamorganshire in 1884, 

 one of the most extensive and severe ever experienced in this 



