176 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



reeds, and grasses, before one sees her. She is also occasionally 

 recorded as coming to light. When the female first emerges, 

 she suspends herself from the cocoon, and remains there whilst 

 wing-expansion takes place (Dalglish). Grover states that the 

 favourite time of emergence from the pupa is from 8 a.m.-io a.m., 

 whilst Battley notes a $ that emerged in the morning, but wing- 

 expansion did not take place until evening. Riihl observes that 

 the habit of the ? s is to fly at dusk in the Zurich district, and 

 Lathy observes that an attempt to assemble with a bred 2 , taken 

 out on July 15th and 16th, both, however, cold damp nights, only 

 attracted a single $ , which appeared about 9.40 p.m., no others 

 being seen. Coverdale reports that, by the ditches on the Deal sand- 

 hills in mid-July 1883, he observed ? s commonly, at rest on grass, 

 side by side with larvae yet feeding ; whilst Musham notes the occur- 

 rence of two 2 s on sugared posts in Wicken Fen in July, 1 900, 

 on two different evenings, but is uncertain whether these were attracted 

 or not by the sugar. The species is much more abundant in 

 some years than others — very abundant in 1879 at Maldon (Fitch), 

 at Wicken in 1891 (Tutt) , at Colchester exceedingly common till 

 the advent of the recent series of dry seasons, since which it has 

 become rare, suggesting a wet or damp environment as advantageous 

 to its successful development (Harwood). The habitats of the species 

 are very various • in Ireland it is widely spread and common on 

 many moorlands, chiefly on the hills, rather than on the flat bogs 

 of the plain (Kane), and in Scotland also it prefers the moorlands. 

 The larvae abound in the long grass growing on the inside of all 

 hedges around Chattenden Woods in quite dry situations ; it is 

 also abundant all over Wicken Fen, by the sides of the 

 ditches that cross the sandhills at Deal, and in the marshy ground 

 around Sandwich ; it is exceedingly abundant on the sandhills 

 between Troon and Ayr, the larvae in thousands, feeding on the 

 bent-grass (Dunsmore) ; on the sandhills between Blyth and Old 

 Hartley, very plentiful, the larvae here also feeding on the bent-grass 

 (Crass) ; on the sandhills and by hedgesides at Hartlepool 

 (Robson) ; on the moors of Argyllshire, from near the sea 

 to 450 feet elevation (Christy) ; at the foot of hedges and 

 on borders of ditches in Suffolk and Essex, some years very 

 abundant (Ransom) ; on hedge-banks at Worcester (Hancock) ; 

 on grassy hedge-banks in the Lewes district (Nicholson) ; on 

 rough grass along the hedge bottoms, at Middlesborough (Loft- 

 house) ; by hedgerows and on roadside banks at Perivale (Mont- 

 gomery) ; on grass banks at the foot of hedges at Boxworth 

 (Thornhill) ; among coarse grass under thick hedges in the 

 Gloucester district (Merrin) ; in lanes and on grassy hedge-banks 

 about Carlisle (Day) ; prefers hedgerows at Wirrall (G. O. Day); 

 in the lanes near Huntington, and by hedgesides near Naburn 

 (Hewett) ; everywhere by roadsides in the Brighton district (Merri- 

 field) ; on grassy hedge-banks at Angmering (Dollman) ; by road- 

 sides, in rough ditches, and on open commons at Skipwith (Ash); 

 prefers the sunny sloping banks by a roadside rather than fields 

 in Notts (Daws) ; on grasses growing in ditches in the Leicester 

 district (Bouskell); prefers ditches at Weymouth (Forsyth); ditches 

 and hedges at Rossall (Moss); ditches and hedgesides at Crickle- 



