PHYCITW.-E—DIORVCrKIA. 415 



The moth sits in fir-trees in the daytime, and may 

 occasionally be beaten out, but probably does not always fly, 

 and when it does, only obliquely down, to hide on the 

 ground. At dusk it is sufficiently active flying round the 

 trees, and will come to flowers such as those of scabious and 

 ragwort if they happen to grow very near to the firs ; later 

 at night it is attracted by a strong light. Not a very common 

 species, but widely distributed and found, where fir is plenti- 

 ful, in Kent, Surrey, Hants, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Bucks, 

 Suffolk, Norfolk, and rarely in Yorkshire, Lancashire, 

 Cheshire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. I have no 

 record for Wales, and those in Ireland seem to be quite 

 uncertain; but in Scotland it has been reared from larvae 

 found in the Clyde Valley and Ross-shire, and taken rarely 

 in Aberdeenshire, Moray, Perthshire, the Isle of Skye, and 

 the Outer Hebrides. Abroad it is found throughout Central 

 and Northern Europe, the North of Italy, and Southern 

 Eussia ; also in Japan ; but the reports from North America 

 appear doubtful, since Piniiicstis renicn/ella, Grote, appears 

 to belong to the next species. 



2. D. splendidella, ff. -S'. ; sylvestrella, A'tee.— Ex- 

 panse 1 to 1^ inch. Fore wings elongated, rather broadly 

 rounded behind, silvery grey; markings deep black with 

 white edging ; second line not erect but angulated and in- 

 dented ; a broad reddish-grey cloud lies before the deep black 

 first line. Hind wings smoky grey. 



Antennffi of the male simple, but the basal joint thick, 

 and the second ridged with a strong black thickening, other- 

 wise shining black-brown; palpi closely appressed to the 

 face, curved up, black; top of the head shining white; 

 thorax dark grey ; abdomen pale grey, dusted with black. 

 Fore wiugs elongated, blunt behind ; costa arched, especially 

 so beyond the middle ; apex almost rounded ; hind margin 

 curved and very little oblique ; colour shining greyish-white, 

 dusted with black; basal area occupied by two greyish- 



