The caterpillar is a warm putty colour, or pinkish brown, mottled and shaded with darker shades; three pale whitish brown lines on the back, the central one bordered on each side by a darker shade, and the outer ones shaded inwardly with darker and edged below by a darker line; a brown or pinkish stripe above the spiracles, and a pinkish yellow stripe below them; head yellowish-brown, shining, and dotted with darker colour. It feeds on grasses from July to April (adapted from Mathew). The moth flies in June and July, and frequents the flowers of the large grasses growing on salt marshes. Sometimes specimens of a second brood appear in August or September.
The range of this common species (Plate 147, Figs. 3[male], 4[female]), in the British Isles is almost the same as that of _L. pallens_, but it does not extend further north than Moray in Scotland. The hind wings are greyish or blackish grey. A form with reddish { 306} fore wings is var. _punctina_, Haw., which sometimes has a row of black dots on the outer margin. The caterpillar is greyish ochreous above, greenish tinged beneath; a brown stripe along the middle of the back is intersected by a very fine white line; above the reddish black-edged spiracles is a brownish stripe; usual dots black; head pale brown, shining, netted with brown and lined with blackish. It feeds on grasses from August to May. The moth is out in July and August; rather later in the north. Distribution abroad extends to Amurland and Japan.
THE SOUTHERN WAINSCOT (_Leucania straminea_).
In its more usual form this species (Plate 147, Fig. 5) has pale whity-brown or pale straw-coloured fore wings, and the black dots forming the second line not infrequently absent, at least as regards some of them. Var. _rufolinea_, Tutt, has the fore wings reddish ochreous, the rays whitish, and the shade under the median nervure reddish. Var. _nigrostriata_, Tutt, has the ground colour of the fore wings obscured by a thick powdering of black scales. The hind wings in all forms are whitish, sometimes greyish tinged. Generally there is a central black dot, and a more or less complete series of black dots beyond it; but some, or all, of these dots may be absent. The caterpillar, which feeds on the leaves of reeds, _Phalaris_, and other coarse grasses from October to May, is ochreous with an orange tinge, and dusted with grey; three white lines on the back are broadly shaded with bluish grey; on the sides are two grey shaded white lines; head shining brownish ochreous (Fenn). The moth flies in July and August, sometimes earlier.