TRIFWM. loi 



Larva and pupa nn known. 



Scarcely anything is known of its habits here, but in 

 Germany it is said to be found principally in cornfields ; and 

 Mr. J. J. Walker, ll.N., says that near Gibraltar it may be 

 found sitting on flowers of Scahiosa, Gcntaurea, &c., in the 

 daytime, in May ; whence there would appear to be two 

 generations in the year in the South of Europe. 



The early history of this species in this country is involved 

 in obscurity. Mr. H. Doubleday regarded it as identical 

 with nervosa, Steph., of which Stephens stated that the 

 caterpillar feeds 07i the elm ! His description has some 

 relation to the appearance of this species, and that of 

 Haworth is even more appropriate ; but no figure is fur- 

 nished ; and that by Wood, under the name of mnscidosa, is 

 actually Calamia phragmitidis. The older records — for 

 Darenth Wood, Kent ; Whittlesea and Yaxley Meres ; and 

 Norfolk — should I think therefore be disregarded. 



The first reliable capture of this species here was, so far as 

 I know, the specimen secured in 1855 by Mr. J. N. Winter 

 at Brighton at lisfht. I believe that it was taken at the 

 Sussex County Hospital, where Mr. Winter was surgeon. 

 In the following year two more were captured in the same 

 manner and recorded by Mr. H. Cooke, of Brighton. In 

 1858 four more were obtained, one of them upon a flower in 

 the daytime, and others in following years, in the same 

 locality. Mr. J. H. A. Jenner informs me that some were 

 also secured at the same time at Bexhill, Kent. Indeed 

 it appears as though from 1855 to 1860 a strenuous effort 

 must have been made by the species to form a settlement in 

 the Southern Counties, and specimens secured at that time 

 ornament most of the larger collections. Captures were 

 reported also from Torquay, Devon, but these are. in my 

 opinion, doubtful. Since 1860 it seems very nearly to have 

 died out, yet there is a record of a specimen flying in the 

 daytime about clover blossoms at Brighton in 1883. I know 



