130 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



chief distinctive features being its brown-spotted costa, and brown 

 marked front legs. It is perhaps a bluer-green than viridata." 

 Having examined specimens of this insect, I confess that I can with 

 the unassisted eye see no difierence from viridata. 



I have said that, having no knowledge of iSenioria viridata myself, 

 I have been thrown upon the resources of my friends, whose good 

 fortune has enabled them to observe the insect in its very restricted 

 haunts. It appears to require generally a damp, perhaps a boggy, 

 situation (although, as so often happens in nature, it sometimes quite 

 contradicts its accustomed habits), and also to be exceedingly local 

 even where it does occur. 



I have carefully collected, and digested, all the records available to 

 me, from which it appears that it is entirely confined, so far as the 

 British Isles are concerned (except the Channel Islands?), to England. 

 I find no mention of its occurrence outside, except Meyrick's " E. 

 Ireland, local," though Kane, in his " Lepidoptera of Ireland " says 

 that, in every case in which specimens were sent to him as this 

 species, they always proved to be H. aestivaria. In England, there 

 appear to be certain centres to which the insect clings, roughly 

 speaking, north, south, east and west — Witherslackandthe neighbouring 

 moors or mosses stand for the northern habitat. The southern and 

 western localities appear to form a broken belt — commencing in 

 Surrey and Sussex. It appears again in force, first in the New Forest 

 and neighbourhood, then at Poole, Bournemouth, Boscombe, Torquay, 

 Dartmoor, Bovey-Tracy, Bloxworth and Barnstaple. I have even 

 found a record from Bath, but that possibly points to some locality 

 available by train. For the eastern habitat I have the authority of 

 Mr. Edelsten for adding the Norfolk Broads. 



I maj'^ add that Dr. Chapman in his note on " The Distribution of 

 Insects " {EntoHioloifist's Record, vol. xi., p. 64) includes the insect 

 amongst those which do not care to reside at the seaside. 



As to the food-plants of X viridata, Newman gives hawthorn ; 

 Meyrick [liibns and hawthorn ; St. John records bramble and white- 

 thorn ; Merrin and Stainton the same. I have purposely avoided 

 placing these authorities in chronological order because their agree- 

 ment appears to have resulted from copying. Edward Newman 

 publishes {Kntoiii., vol. v. (1871), pp. 383, 415), a description of the 

 larva as feeding upon osier, and at the same time discusses the 

 question of its identity with porrinaria, ZelL, or even the occurrence of 

 the latter in England, to the exclusion of viridata. To this 

 Hodgkinson replied that, at Witherslack, osier cannot be the food- 

 plant as it does not occur in the locality, and suggests Myrica <jale, as 

 more likely. He speaks of having taken 20 dozen specimens at one 

 time, and adds that he once took "two fine yellow varieties." Mr. 

 A. W. Mera tells me that he has reared the larva successfully upon 

 knot-grass. Dr. G. G. C. Hodgson has experimented largely upon the 

 subject. Having gathered all possible low-grown plants (except grass 

 and sedges) from the restricted locality where he had captured the 

 moth, and placed the larva? upon them, he found that the plant 

 selected for food was Potevtilla tonnentilla, which is unfortunately a 

 more unsatisfactory plant to deal with, as it will not keep fresh in 

 water for three days. Yet one more food-plant presents itself. The 

 Rev. F. E. Lowe writes {Rntom. liecord, x., p. 18) : " With us {i.e., in 



