LARENTIDyE—EUPlTHECIA. 83-. 



Hofmatm says on Bnphvrum falcatuni and Pcvccdanvui 

 mrosdiiudn, on the Continent. It prefers plants growing 

 on hedge-banks and way-sides, and is sometimes terribly 

 infested with Ichneumons. 



Pupa moderately stout, rounded in front ; wing and limb- 

 covers rather glossy and almost devoid of sculpture, yellowish- 

 green ; anterior band of each segment roughly and abundantly 

 pitted, the edges ridged ; colour red-brown ; anal segment a^ 

 little swollen, cremaster conical, rather elongated, tipped with 

 fine hooked bristles. Sometimes wholly red-brown. In a 

 cocoon of silk and earth, in the ground. 



In this condition through the winter. 



This species also hides, in the moth state, among low-grow- 

 ing herbage, and is not easily disturbed in the daytime, nor 

 very often captured at all in the moth state. It flies at late 

 dusk over its food plant in lanes and at hedge-sides, but 

 quickly becomes worn and difficult of recognition. Hencfr 

 the specimens in our collections are principallj' those which 

 have been reared in confinement. It seems first to have been 

 noticed in this countrj- in 1851 by the Rev. J. S. Henslow,^ 

 who found and reared larvae in Suffolk, but did not recognise 

 the species. It has since been found — by the same means — to 

 have a wide distribution here, to be common in the Eastern 

 Counties, and to occur in all the Southern and Western 

 Counties except perhaps Cornwall, reaching even to West- 

 moreland ; also found in Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Durham. 

 In Wales I have met with it in Pembrokeshire, but have no 

 other record, nor does there appear to be any for Scotland, 

 but in Ireland it is recorded from Killarney, and I have seen 

 a specimen obtained by Mr. D. C. Campbell in Derry. Abroad 

 it is found through the greater part of Central Europe, the 

 South of France, the North of Italy, Livonia, Southern Russia, 

 and in a rather greyer variety in the mountainous regions of 

 Central Asia. 



