376 l-ErinOPTERA. 



found. It is (|uite slnpgisli, and makes no effort to escape, 

 lying doubled together, and falling to the ground if dis- 

 turbed. 



PlPA elongate, shining, bright reddish inahoganj* colour; 

 wing- and linilj-cases darkrr. In a loose cocoon of silk and 

 sand, iinderground. (('. Fenn.) 



The moth hides during the day in hedges, hushes, and trees 

 in lanes, fields, and woods 'very wliere. and on hills and moun- 

 tains among the whortleberry and heather; and if such an ex- 

 pression V)e admissible, is for a few weeks a most unmitigated 

 nuisance ! When it appears one cannot touch a hedge with- 

 out disturbing it, for every specimen Hies out in great haste ; 

 and the air is filled with iluttering multitudes, so that any other 

 moth on the wing at the same time is almost sure to be over- 

 looked. At night it seems to fly rather high but is still most 

 abundant about the tops of the hedges ; yet is hardly to be 

 attracted to any extent by light, and oidy comes occasionally 

 to feast upon honeydew : on the other hand it will in Scotland 

 eagerl}- feast u])on the scanty nectar nf rush-bloom. 



Abundant throughout the United Kingdom. exce])t that it 

 is scarce in the Ontei- Hebrides, and does not seem to have yet 

 been noticed in the Shetland Isles. Abroad it is found every- 

 where in Central and Northern Kurope, Iceland, Northern 

 Italy, Turkey, the Ural _.Moniitaiii district, Tartary, the moun- 

 tainous regions of Central Asia. Western China, and Japan 

 — where it is rather larger in size — also in Western North 

 America at both California and V'ancouver. 



Genus 2(1. OPORABIA. 



AnteniicC short, ciliated ; palpi short and blunt ; head and 

 thorax smooth, back crest hardly perceptible ; abdomen 

 smooth, short and stumpy; fore wings silky, thin, and weak, 

 vein 5 above the middle of the cross-bar ; hind wings very 

 thin, long and unusually ample, veins 7 and 8 united to near 

 the end of the cell. 



