HVDROCAMPID.-ESTENIA. 2gy 



feeding indifferently on living vegetation. It was only after 

 long and hard searching that Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher dis- 

 covered the curious habit of this species, of feeding on dead 

 leaves under stones, even when they are wetted with sea- 

 water. 



Pupa long and slender ; the eye-cases rather prominent ; 

 the tongue, antenna, and leg-cases soldered together and 

 attached to the body so far as the end of the wing-cases, 

 thence free, and reaching quite to the end of the abdomen^ 

 over-reached by the spike only ; this spike is slightly curved, 

 and furnished with six curly topped spines ; skin smooth, 

 not shining, yellowish-brown ; the eyes, the tip and rings of 

 the abdomen, and the tip of the tongue-case, chestnut ; the 

 spike still darker. In a rather tough cocoon, lined with a 

 fabric of white silk, and coated externally with leafy rubbish ; 

 on the ground. 



This is a most curiously local species with us. It may be 

 found on some grassy spot on the slope of a chalk-hill quite 

 commonly, but only for a few yards of space, and outside 

 this not for long distances, even miles, but is more frequent 

 where grass grows among the shingle close to the sea; 

 indeed it may sometimes be found among herbage at the lasc 

 of a cliff, and again at the top, in the grassy places. On the 

 Continent it does not seem to be so very select in its tastes, 

 but is said by M. Ragonot to frequent pasture-land and hill 

 slopes. It is attracted by a light if placed in its usual haunts- 

 Possibly climate has something to do with its selection of 

 situations, at any rate it is clear that it cannot exist here at 

 any great distance from the sea, except where some slope of 

 a chalk hill furnishes exactly what it requires. Its range 

 with us is therefore restricted to Kent, Sussex, Hants with 

 the Isle of Wight, Dorset, Devon, both north and south, 

 Cornwall with the Scilly Isles, and Somerset. Abroad it 

 occurs over Central and Southern Europe except Holland, 

 and in Asia Minor, Syria, and Northern Africa. 



