before the appellation of Psilura was applied to the former 

 species in the Illustrations, and he has not employed Hypo- 

 gijmna for either of them. 



H. Monacha is a very handsome moth, and I have been 

 tempted to figure a splendid variety of the female presented 

 to me by Mr. J. Weaver, a very zealous and promising En- 

 tomologist, who took it near Petersfield. The caterpillars of 

 this species live upon the Scotch fir, and are sometimes so 

 abundant in Germany as to deprive those trees entirely of 

 their foliage; they feed also on the bramble, birch, apple and 

 oak, on which they are generally found in this country : they 

 are full-grown the beginning of July, and the moth occurs 

 about the end of August; trunks of trees and paling in Epping 

 and the New Forests, and Mr. T. Desvignes has taken it in 

 abundance in Black-park near Uxbriilge, and at Darent. 



H. dispar^ called the Gypsy moth, is figured by Donovan, 

 V. 5. 2^1- 163. The palpi of the female do not project beyond 

 the head, and are quite concealed beneath it ; those of the 

 male are clavate ; the abdomen of the former sex is very stout, 

 ovate and obtuse at the apex, and thickly clothed with silky 

 hair. The larvae are polyphagous, feeding on the oak, elm, 

 lime, willow, and Iruit- trees generally, and arfe sometimes very 

 destructive in gardens from June to August. At the time 

 Donovan wrote, these moths were so rare that he could not 

 obtain British specimens to figure in his work ; it is not easy 

 therefore to conceive the delight I experienced when a boy, 

 on finding the locality of the Gypsy moth : after a long walk 

 I arrived at the extensive marshes at Horning in Norfolk, 

 having no other guide to the spot than the Myrica gale^ and 

 on finding the beds of that shrub, which grows freely there, 

 the gaily-coloured caterpillars first caught my sight; they 

 were in every stage of growth, some of them being as large as 

 a swan's quill ; I also soon discovered the moths, which are 

 so totally different in colour as to make a tyro doubt their 

 being legitimate partners: the large loose cocoons were like- 

 wise very visible, and on a diligent search I found bundles of 

 the eggs, covered with the fine down IVom the abdomen of the 

 females, which is said to be scratched off by the males, to pro- 

 tect them as soon as they are laid. With eggs, caterpillars, 

 chrysalides, and moths 1 speedily returned, enjoying unmixed 

 delight in my newly-gained actjuisitions, and looking for- 

 ward with pleasure to the feeding and rearing my stock the 

 following year. 



I have since found vast quantities of the eggs on the trees 

 that grow on the cjuay of Rouen, which I gave to Mr. Rad- 

 don, who bred them for several years; they were much stronger 

 maiked than our English specimens, and like the Silk-worm 

 moth they degenerated, and eventually came out crippled. 



The Plant is Polypogon Moiispeliensis, Bearded Bent-grass, 

 conununicatet! by Dr. Goiding Bird from Plunistead Marshes, 

 and from Guernsey by S,ll. Haslam, Esq. 



