LARENTID.^-MELANTHIA. irg 



great distance, and easy of capture. Its natural flight is at 

 dusk, but it may sometimes be seen moving about towards 

 sunset; also late at night it will come occasionally to Howers. 

 Almost confined to woods and their immediate neighbour- 

 hood, indeed, generally to be found about open places within 

 them, and especially attached to large extents of woodland 

 such as the New Forest. Apparently to be found in everj^ 

 county of England in which such suitable places exist, but 

 becoming scarce in the North ; found also in Glamorganshire 

 and other parts of South Wales, though very rarely in 

 Pembrokeshire. In Scotland it seems only to occur ni the 

 extreme South, as in Wigtownshire ; but in Ireland it has a 

 wider extension, being found casually or very locally in 

 Wicklow. ^Vexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Galway, Sligo, 

 Westmeath, Mouaghau. Tyrone, Armagh, Antrim, Down, 

 Donegal, and Deny. It is a circumstance difficult of explana- 

 tion that it should at one time have been found //( profusion 

 in some Islands ofi" the coast of Kerry. 



Abroad it has an extensive range through Central Europe, 

 the temperate portions of Northern Europe, Northern Italy, 

 Southern Russia, Tartary, the mountain regions of Central 

 Asia, and Japan. 



4. M. procellata, ,sV7i///; — Expanse 1^ to If inch. 

 Fore wings silky white ; basal blotch small ; central band 

 broad, only represented by a costal blotch, both black-brown ; 

 a similar bind baud is interrupted by a large sijuare white 

 patch. Iliud wings white, clouded behind with smoky- 

 brown. 



Antennaj of the male rather thick, simple, ciliated, brown ; 

 palpi small, pale brown ; eyes bronzy-brown ; face very full 

 and prominetat, dark chocolate ; head and thorax umbreous, 

 the latter having a short thick crest-like tuft at the back , 

 ahdomeu greyish-white, with a brown spot on the back ot 

 the second segment, anal tuft light brown. Fore wings 

 rather elongated, costa arched, especially so beyond the 



