176 



fences, in old spiders' webs, and occasionally lie exposed on ilic ground. On 24tb 

 August many pupa? were found under cattle manure, and on 3rd September, 113 

 wore collected within the space of 18 inches square at the base of a large oak, some 

 being under leaves and others exposed. They have a very slight, silken web, to 

 which they are attached by the well-developed cremastral hooks. When the perfect 

 insects emerged the full force of this invasion was most perceptible. On 20th Sep- 

 tember the moths were emerging in every direction and crawling up the trees to find 

 a favourable spot to expand their wings. I had visited one tree the day before and 

 found none. I now counted 127 and this was the beginning of one of the most 

 wonderful entomological sights I have ever seen. By 5th October the moths were in 

 myriads, the trees being literally covered, not only on the trunks but on every limb 

 and branch, as far up as the eye could discern, so close together that the wings 

 overlapped. On shaking a branch they would fly off in such numbers that you could 

 positively hear them fly. When the moths first appeared the males averaged 90 

 per cent, of the whole, but on 24th October the females bore the same proportion to 

 the whole. About this time heavy fogs set in, and the ground around was strewn 

 with dead bodies. The districts which suffered most were the woods to the north, 

 south and west. The east was affected somewhat but the north-east seemed to be 

 exempt from their ravages, although oaks are abundant. 



" About the 8th October the trees in districts which were first defoliated put 

 forth a fresh covering of beautiful foliage ; those trees which were injuied later also 

 put oxit new leaves, but did not make such good growth as the former. 



" The egg is beautifully blue when first laid, oval in form, with one end slightly 

 flattened, it adheres to the bark where it is deposited, generally scattered, though 

 occasionally a dozen will be found side by side in an upright jjosition. As a rule, 

 however, they are deposited separately upon or in crevices of the bark. 



" The moths vary from 14 lines to 24 lines in expanse, some males being very 

 large and the females occasionally very small. They also differ greatly in the shade 

 of colouring, ranging from a pale ochreous to a dark fuscous brown, antennse of the 

 male plumose ; wings angulated, with a broad band transversely across. When 

 disturbed during daylight they fly with a sluggish motion for a few yards and drop 

 to the ground. Occasionally only do they fly up to the trees. 



" It now remains for some means to be devised to stamp out, or at least reduce 

 the numbeis of this pest, and no doubt the Park Commissioners would be only too 

 glad to have some plan suggested to them." 



Amongst the moths Mr. Danby forwarded were well-marked examples, which 

 agreed with Mr. Hulst'g description (Ent. Am. I. 208), and all confirmed the differ- 

 ences between somniaria and the Eastern /enu'^aria. 



Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. David Bruce identified the species as fervi- 

 daria and that Dr. Packard states in his monograjjh of the Geometridse, p. 494,as below, 

 I am inclined to consider somniaria a western representative of fervidaria, which 

 should receive a distinctive name. Dr. Packard says : " The five males and one 

 female from Vancouver Island are larger, but do not difter so much from eastern 

 examples as the latter among themselves. They are more yellow, with coarser, 

 dark speckles, and the lines are more broadly shaded with j'ellow." Now, it is on 

 these very characters that Mr. Hulst has separated it, and I find them, with the 

 exception of size, uniformlj^ present in all the western specimens I have seen. The 

 moth is pale brown, densely dotted with dark points, expands about 1^ inches, 

 wings acutely angled, crossed bj'' two distinct dark lines, " the outer of which 

 are broadly edged outwardly, and the inner ones inwardly with orange." The inner 

 line on the primaries is situated ^ of the way from the base, and is bowed out in 

 the middle towards the apex, so as to form a segment of a circle. The outer line, 

 which starts from the front edge or costa of the wing, f of the way from the base, 

 is zigzag, and runs a quarter across the wing, sloping slightly out to the outer 

 margin, where it is sharply angled opposite the angle of the wing, and runs at an 

 angle of 45 degrees to within a quarter of the distance to the inner margin. Here it 

 in obtusely angled, and slopes outwards again at the same angle as the upper portion 



