THE TWIN-SPOTTED (_Nonagria geminipuncta_).
This species, shown on Plate 144, Figs. 6, 7, varies in colour from pale brown, more or less suffused with grey, through darker, or reddish brown to blackish (var. _nigricans_, Staud.). { 298} In the brown typical form the reniform mark is represented by two dark-edged white dots, the upper one often tiny or absent (var. _unipuncta_, Tutt), or both may be absent (var. _obsoleta_, Tutt). The caterpillar in pale ochreous, pink-tinged, a pale line along the spiracles; head dark brown. May and June, in stems of reeds (_Phragmites_). The chrysalis lies in the reed stem with the head towards the oval hole above it from which the moth escapes. In August the moth may be found in its haunts in the south and east of England. These are marshes, often near the sea, in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Essex, the Thames valley, Sussex, Hants, and the Isle of Wight, Wiltshire and Somerset.
THE BROWN-VEINED WAINSCOT (_Nonagria dissoluta_).
The popular name applies more especially to the ordinary form of this species known as _arundineta_, Schmidt. (Plate 144, Fig. 8.) The dark brown or black typical form (_dissoluta_, Treit. = _hessii_, Boisd.) is local and uncommon; in fact until 1900 it had not been noted in England for a number of years, and specimens were only known from Yaxley. In the year just mentioned however, several examples of it were recorded from Suffolk, taken in the Needham Market district; and in 1905 specimens were reported from the East Kent marshes. Var. _arundineta_, the _neurica_ of some authors, occurs in the fens of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Lincolnshire; also in marshes in Essex and Kent; and is said to have been taken in Middlesex and Lancashire. The caterpillar is dirty white, light reddish on the back; raised dots black inclining to brown on front three rings; spiracles white edged with black; head dark brown; plate on first and last rings of the body brownish grey. It feeds in June in the stems of reed and turns to a chrysalis in the lower part of the stem, head downwards in the direction of the exit hole below it. (Plate 148, Fig. 1.) The moth flies in July and August.
Pl. 144. 1, 2. FROSTED ORANGE MOTH. 3. WEBB'S WAINSCOT. 4. REED WAINSCOT. 5. BULRUSH MOTH. 6, 7. TWIN-SPOTTED WAINSCOT. 8. BROWN-VEINED WAINSCOT. 9. FENN'S WAINSCOT, 10. _aberration sinelinea._