I70 LEPIDOPTERA. 



curled-topped spiues. In a very tough cocoon of pale 

 brownish silk, spun up in late autumn. (Rev. J. Hellins). 

 At what time this state is assumed therein remains uncer- 

 tain, for after rearing some of the moths in ]\Iay 1874, a 

 living larva was found in one of the other cocoons in the 

 following month. Mr. Buckler found that pieces of dead 

 stems of umbelliferous plants were readily accepted for 

 spinning up in. 



This species is mainly confined to chalk districts, and 

 loves the hillsides and downs, where it flies in a lively 

 manner in the daytime, usually about thyme, marjoram and 

 calamint. It was found by Mr. R. McLachlan for several 

 successive years about mint in his garden at Lewisham, but 

 otherwise has very seldom been observed in the London 

 suburbs. On the chalk hills and slopes of Surrey, Sussex, 

 Kent, Hants and Wilts it is very common, and moderately 

 so in Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Dorset, 

 Berks and Oxfordshire ; more locally in Norfolk, Suffolk, 

 Cambridgeshire, Herefordshire, and Monmouthshire ; and 

 at Dovedale, Derbyshire ; Yorkshire, and North Lancashire ; 

 in Durham it is common in Hezleden and Castle Eden denes. 

 In Wales Mr. H. T. Stainton recorded it at Conway ; and 

 these localities seem to mark its limits in these Islands. 

 Yet records occur of its presence in Lanark and Ayrshire 

 which have not been disproved. On the Continent it has a 

 wide range through Europe to Portugal, and is common in 

 Corsica ; also found in Madeira and the Canaries ; the 

 Barbary States ; Asia ^Minor, Armenia, Persia, Afghanistan, 

 the Central Asian mountain regions, and Siberia. 



4. P. cespitalis, Bchiff. — Expanse f to f inch (15-18 

 mm.). Pore wings dull olive-brown faintly tinged with 

 yellow ; hind wings smoky brown with a dull yellow central 

 stripe, sometimes followed by another, narrower and more 

 faint. Female darker and more sharply marked. 



