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.
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| Pl. 144. |
| 1, 2. | Frosted Orange Moth. | 3. | Webb's Wainscot. |
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| 4. | Reed Wainscot. | 5. | Bulrush Moth. |
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| 6, 7. | Twin-spotted Wainscot. | 8. | Brown-veined Wainscot. |
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| 9. Fenn's Wainscot, 10. aberration sinelinea. |
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| Pl. 145. |
| 1, 2. | Large Wainscot. | 3, 4. | Fen Wainscot. |
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| 5, 6. | Flame Wainscot. | 7, 8. | Silky Wainscot. |
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| 9, 10, 11. | Small Rufous Moth. | 12, 13, 14. | Small Wainscot. |
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The Small Rufous (Cœnobia rufa).
Varies from pale ochreous white, through reddish shades, to a greyish brown. (Plate [145], Figs. 9 to 11.) The caterpillar is described by Hofmann, as pale reddish above and whitish below, with minute dark dots on the back and a fine blackish line along the sides; head and plate on first ring of the body brown and glossy. May and June, in stems of the jointed rush (Juncus lamprocarpus). The moth flies in July and August, and occurs in fens and marshes. At one time it was not uncommon in marshy localities around London, and it is still to be obtained in Richmond Park, Surrey. In some years it abounds in the Norfolk and Cambridge fens, and in others is hardly seen. It is also to be found more or less frequently but always local in Suffolk, Essex, Berks, Kent, Sussex, Isle of Wight, Dorset (Isle of Purbeck), Devon, Somerset, Gloucester, North and South Wales, Cheshire, and Yorkshire; Argyllshire in Scotland; Ireland.
The Silky Wainscot (Senta maritima).
In its typical form (Fig. 7) the moth shown on Plate [145] is whity-brown, clouded with grey and sometimes tinged with brownish on the disc. The orbicular and reniform stigmata are round and faintly outlined in whitish. In var. bipunctata, Haworth, the stigmata are black and conspicuous: var. wismariensis, Schmidt, has a blackish central streak from the base broadening out towards the outer margin (Fig. 8): var. nigristriata, Staud., has the fore-wings finely streaked with black; and var. nigrocostata, Staud., has the front margin broadly black. The caterpillar is ochreous grey with three fine interrupted, whitish lines on the back; spiracles black with darker lines along their area; head dark brown and shining. September to May, hiding by day in stems of reed (Phragmites) and at night