352 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



Starke, wie bei ersterer Art. Diess kann das Characteristische einer 

 eigenen Gattung genugsam bestimmen. Ich bemerke noch, dass 

 zuweilen die Fliigel ganz durchsichtig erscheinen, da die haarigte 

 Schuppen sehr leicht durch den Flug sich verlieren. Man findet diese 

 Phalene zu Anfang des Somraers im Gras auf Wiesen, oder in Wal- 

 dungen auf blumigten Platzen. Mehrentheils trift man sie in einem 

 kleinen Bezirk zahlreich beisammen an. Doch sind sie schwer zu 

 entdecken, und noch miihsamer zu fangen. Sie entgehen schon auf 

 ein paar Schritte dem Gesicht. Ihre Farbe, und der durchirrende Flug 

 schiitzt sie fur Nachstellung mehr, als durch wiirkliche Waffen. Man 

 trift sie auch zuweilen in einiger Betaubung auf den Grasstengeln 

 sitzend an (Esper, Die Schmett., &c, p. 232.) 



Imago. — Anterior wings 10mm.-16mni. in expanse, uniformly black, 

 with black cilia, apices rounded, posterior wings also uniformly black 

 with black cilia. (Quite freshly emerged examples are much blacker, 

 more densely scaled, and opaque than those that have flown). 



Sexual dimorphism. — S • The male is black (jet-black when newly 

 emerged), densely clothed with slender hair-scales (which soon rub off), 

 .on the forewings, slightly broader scales with a few stria? being 

 scattered over the wing and occurring more densely on the costa and 

 at the apex where some of the scales have quite bifid apices. The 

 scales on the hindwings are more defined although slender and their 

 apices are generally pointed. The antennae have 18 joints*, pectina- 

 tions unsealed. The anterior tibiae are without spurs, the posterior 

 tibiae have two well-developed pairs. ? . The female may be described 

 as a bag of eggs ; the following structures, however, exist : A small 

 head (with a distinct neck) that remains enclosed in the pupal head, 

 but how attached or whether only held on by the narrowness of the 

 opening of the pupal head does not appear. The imaginal head 

 presents several mammillae in front, which no doubt correspond more 

 or less with the antennae, maxillae, &c, noted in the pupa. The true 

 legs are represented by six mammillae, nearly twice as long as broad, 

 but apparently soft and structureless. The ova and uriniferous 

 tubercles are easily seen through the parietes, the former appear to be 

 ovoid and about '5mm. in length. Two joints of the ovipositor are 

 very evident ; the first one containing two rods attached to the second. 

 The number of segments is, therefore, the same as in the araneiform 

 females of the lower Psychids, viz., two with an intermediate membrane 

 (frequently described as a third segment) (Chapman) . Barrett describes 

 the living female as " about half an inch long, stout and very like a 

 maggot, reddish-yellow, redder on the back, especially at the segmental 

 incisions ; head very small and tucked down, a mere brownish mask, 

 browner where the mouth should be ; no mouth organs, antennae, 

 wings, nor scales ; legs just indicated by minute, jointed, yellow, glassy 

 points, without claws — mere papillae, apparently without motion or 

 function ; seemingly without dorsal shields ; pretty even in thickness 

 to about the 11th segment, which, with the following, tapers off 

 rapidly, the 13th being small, bluntly terminated, except a small point 

 or ovipositor case projecting from its centre. This portion of the body 



* The antennae of ordinary British E. pulla vary in having from 17-20 joints, 

 typically there are 18 ; large specimens from Italy and the French Eiviera have 21- 

 22 joints, and one of Zeller's from Bergun has 21 joints ; sieboldii, from Staudinger, 

 has the normal number, 18. 



