110 tHE entomologist's RECORD. 



Hydriomena furcata (Hypslpetes sordidata) : Its Synonymy, 

 Variation, Geographical Distribution and Life=history. 



By LOUIS B. PEOUT, F.E.S. 



{Coucluded from p. 87.) 



Geographical distribution. — As with so many of our common 

 moths, this is very extensive, though it cannot actually be considered 

 a cosmopolitan. Staudinger gives Northern and Central Europe, 

 Iceland, Piedmont, Ural, Altai and Amur; to which must be added, 

 after Packard, an extensive range in North America. The aberration 

 fmcd-undata, and the variety (et ab.) infmcata, are apparently chiefly 

 boreal or mountain forms. Staudingcr specifies England, Switzer- 

 land, Iceland, etc., for the former. Northern England and Iceland for 

 the latter. 



That this is essentially a northern species, nearly all my available 

 information goes towards showing. Staudinger tells, in the Stcttincr 

 EntomoloiiUche Zeitmuj (1857, p. 263), of its abundance in Iceland, 

 and the Scandinavians write of its abundance in Norway, etc. In 

 some parts of Scotland, at least, it appears to be in boundless profu- 

 sion. My friend Mr. -J. P. Mutch was quite recently telling me of the 

 swarms met with during his summer holiday in the North, while 

 hardly anything else was to be found. But it seems to be more or less 

 common over nearly the whole of the British Islands. 



On the Continent, however (even in Germany, for example), I read 

 that it is more local, though still abundant in places, and as one pro- 

 ceeds further south it disappears altogether. 



My notes on the life history of this species will, I am afraid, be 

 very fragmentary, but I shall at least endeavour to be accurate. New- 

 man [BritixJi Moths, p. 153) has a circumstantial account which, alas! 

 (like only too many of Newman's '-circumstantial accounts") is 

 largely apocryphal. As the work is readily accessible, it is needless to 

 quote ; but I may point out that I knew long ago — and many of my 

 audience must have known long ago — that it does not hybernate "half- 

 grown," for we find it extremely small when working sallows at the 

 beginning of April. But as Newman seemed so well acquainted with 

 his subject, I felt loth to accuse him of any serious error, and assumed 

 that possibly the larva hatched in autumn and laid up for hybernation 

 very early. Two sources of doubt, however, presented themselves : 1st, 

 the well developed ovipositor of the female, which I thought ought to 

 indicate some more secure concealment of the eggs than would be 

 necessary if they were to hatch " in twelve days ;" and, 2nd, the entire 

 change of habit of the larva which would be necessitated in the spring, 

 when it took to its concealed mode of life, as compared with the open 

 feeding on mature sallow leaves, which was assumed for the autumn. 

 I therefore pill-boxed two females for ova during my recent sojourn at 

 Sandown. The eggs obtained, of which I shall speak in further detail 

 immediately, appeared fertile, but have not i/rt /latclwil, and I have since 

 found that Dr. Bossier, in ]>ie Sc/nfjipcnfiih/ler, indicates the egg as the 

 hybernating stage. 



The egg. — This is probably laid in crevices of bark, or some 

 similar situation, in July, August, or even the beginning of September. 

 In captivity this species does not seem disposed to lay so readily as 

 most of the Larentiidae ; at least, my females only laid respectively two 



