HYDRiECIA MCTITANS. 49 



portions of the grass close to the soil, and to spin for 

 itself there a case of whitish silk, closely and firmly 

 invested with the food- plant, which forms at once a 

 snug dwelling and protection, and in most instances 

 the shelter afforded by a stone was utilized, even 

 within a few inches of salt water. It rather surprised 

 me to find this species in such a littoral habitat, never 

 having met with it before, though I had known the 

 moth taken at light in a grassy place bordering a wood 

 four miles away inland, and understood that it occurred 

 commonly on open moors and other similar localities 

 in many parts of the kingdom. 



The young larva, when a quarter of an inch to three- 

 eighths in length, is of ivory whiteness striped longi- 

 tudinally with purplish-crimson ; the head white, with 

 black ocelli and dark brown mouth. After a moult in 

 about five days it assumes a little more colour, when 

 the head is pale whity-brown, as are also the neck 

 and tail-plates, each plate having two pairs of minute 

 blackish-brown dots. The ground colour of the body 

 is a faint greenish-drab, which shows transversely at 

 the segmental divisions and in the wrinkles, as well as 

 in the broadish dorsal stripe, the subdorsal and lateral 

 stripes, and the whole of the belly. The alternating 

 dark stripes are now of crimson-brown, broadest along 

 the back, of which they mark the boundary ; the two 

 below on the side are narrower and follow the sub- 

 dorsal and lateral ones, the spiracles occurring at the 

 bottom of the lowest. 



On attaining nearly the length of an inch its stoutish 

 form is noticeably stoutest at the third and fourth 

 segments. The darker colouring of the back and side 

 stripes is now changed to pinkish-grey, and that of the 

 pale stripes to a light, rather greenish flesh-tint ; the 

 shining head is of a warm flesh-colour and dark brown- 

 ish at the mouth ; the glossy neck- plate is light yellow- 

 ish-brown, rather inclining to orange, thinly outlined 

 with blackish-brown, but thicker at the front margin, 

 where it is wavy within ; the anal plate is of the same 



VOL. IV. 4 



