542 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



from Mr. Whittle] . The pupa is black, dull-looking, the cuticle 

 transversely striated, thinly clothed with short ferruginous hairs, which 

 are most abundant at the anal extremity, the latter prolonged but 

 blunt (Newman). 



Comparison of pvpm op M. castrensis and M. neustria. — The 

 pupae of M. castrensis are rather browner than those of M. neustria, some 

 variation would, however, seem to exist as one male pupa is quite red- 

 brown, while those of another male and a female are of a dark mahogany 

 tint, almost, but not quite, black in the case of that of thefemale. Thehairs 

 on the pupae of castrensis appear browner and more numerous, but the 

 former difference may be more or less due to the browner colour of the 

 pupal envelope. The pupa of M. neustria is longer, thinner, and tapers 

 more gradually to the anus ; that of M. castrensis is shorter, and tapers 

 much more sharply from abdominal segments 6-8 than is the case in 

 M. neustria. The mouth-parts, too, in 21. castrensis, shade more 

 gradually into the surrounding parts as regards colour ; in 21. neustria, 

 the transition from coal-black leg- and eye-sheaths, &c, to the pale 

 brown of the mouth-parts is quite sudden and abrupt (differences in 

 degree are observable in this respect in the pupae of M. castrensis, but 

 the contrast in all the pupae of 21. neustria examined, is distinctly 

 marked) (Bacot). 



Parasites. — In ordinary seasons it seldom happens that parasites 

 are bred from the larvae, but in 1893 many larvae were destroyed by 

 them (Whittle). Telenomm pihalaenarum has been bred from this 

 species (Goeze). 



Food-plants. — Almost polyphagous. In the Isle of Sheppey the 

 favourite food is Statice limonium, then Artemisia maritima, but also 

 found on coarse salt-marsh grasses, Plantago maritima, &c. (Walker), 

 Atriplex jyoj-tulacoides, A. littoralis, Suaeda maritima, coarse grasses, 

 rose, birch (Whittle), Plantago lanceolata, Daucus carota (Curtis), 

 chrysanthemums (Vaughan), Polygonum aviculare (A. H. Jones), 

 southernwood (preferred when dipped in salt water), cherry leaves 

 (eaten voraciously when dipped in salt water) (Ingall), Pilosella, Jacea, 

 Alchemilla, Euphorbia (Linne), Centaurea jacea, Euphorbia esula, E. 

 cyparissias, Geranium, Hieracium pilosella, young birch shoots (Bork- 

 hausen), Artemisia campestris (Teich), Athamantha oreoselinum (Zeller), 

 Helianthemum rub/are (Selys), Erica, Leontodon, Calluna, &c. (Caradja), 

 Campaxmla, &c. (Bossier), young shoots of Betula alba (Garbowski), 

 apple, pear, poplar, plum, blackthorn (preferably sprinkled with salt 

 water) (Newman), plum, oak (Ingall), Erodium (Milliere), sallow, 

 knot-grass, plantain, willow (Bacot), Armeria maritima, Silene mari- 

 tima, Inula crithmoides (Harwood). 



Habits and Habitat. — The habits of the imagines are practically 

 unknown, but Button observes that they emerge in the after- 

 noon, and should be secured before dark, or they will batter themselves 

 to pieces. The moth is rarely seen wild, almost all our cabinet 

 specimens having been bred from captured larvae. Walker took a 

 female in Sheerness, in July, 1868, on a wall opposite a lamp post, 

 probably attracted by the light. Jones captured a female near Graves- 

 end. Button notes (Ent., 1868, p. 129) an example at Gravesend 

 attracted by the lamp when sugaring on the marshes, and Milliere 

 obtained a female when resting on a stalk of Lavandula officinalis, on the 

 Pic de l'Aigle. It may have been merely a fortuitous coincidence, but 



