3o6 LEPIDOPTERA. 



only records tli;it, I have are that of Mr. Porritt upon Pen- 

 maenmawr, and my own on the coast of Pembrokeshire. 

 In Ireland it was taken by the late Mr. E. Birchall in 

 iJalway. Ahro.-id generally distributed through Central 

 and Southern l']urope, including Corsica, and in Finland; 

 also through Asia Minor, Syria, and Northern Africa. 



Family 5 SCOPARIID-ffi. 



Proboscis present; labial palpi porrected ; maxillary palpi 

 upraised and noticeable, somewhat fan-shaped; fore wings 

 narrow, very blunt, vein 7 arising from the angle of the 

 discal cell ; vein 10 free; veins 7 and 8 of the hind wings 

 almost joined ; upper side of the median nervure not 

 fringed. 



Genus 1. SCOP ARIA. 



Antennas simple; palpi rather long, pointed, the maxillary 

 tufted above ; scales on the top of the head converging ; 

 thorax smooth; abdomen slender; fore wings elongate, 

 rather even in width and somewhat scjuared behind; the 

 discal cell Ion;,' ; hind wings broad; veins 7 and 8 closely 

 parallel three-f Mirths of their length, almost joined ; cross- 

 bar oblique ; I'jrn not very long. 



This is a large genus of species very similar in colour, and 

 of a somewhat uniform pattern of markings ; many of them 

 80 variable that it. is still a contested point which are reliable 

 species and which mere varieties. We have, in my own 

 opinion, fifteeji species, each certainly recognisable, yet by 

 such fine poieis of difference that tabulation becomes 

 difficult, and such tabulation as would enable a reader to 

 discriminate \i\\< m satisfactorily perhaps impossible. Probably 

 it is, therefore, better not to attempt it. 



The larvae o; some of the species are known to feed in 

 moss; of other.'-, although it has been frequently asserted 



