226 LEPIDOPTERA. 



yellow ; the oblique dashes deeper pvirple-brown, the spiraculai' 

 similar, and the undersurface and legs greyish-green. 



May and June on sallow, oak, plantain, chickweed, 

 whortleberry and other low-gi'owing plants. Rather sluggish 

 in its habits. 



Pupa apparently nndescribed, subterranean. Dr. Chapman 

 has found that, as in the last genus, the moth is fully per- 

 fected in the pupa skin before the winter, and may be 

 extracted alive — but there is no reason to suppose that under 

 such conditions it would spread its wings. 



The moth hides during the day among herbage and dead 

 leaves ; at dusk it visits the blooming sallows, apparently 

 preferring large bushes growing outside woods ; it may be 

 shaken off them into an umbrella, and is one of the softest 

 and lightest in its fall, and soon rouses itself to fly away. I 

 have no knowledge that it has ever been seen at sugar, or 

 any other species of blossom, or at light ; but it is so local 

 and comparatively scarce a species that we may not be fully 

 acquainted with its habits. It seems to have occurred at 

 one time close to London, at Wandsw^orth, but has doubtless 

 long since been expelled by the builder ; still to be found 

 in small numbers in the more wooded parts of Surrey, Sussex, 

 Kent, Hants, and more rarely in Devon, Somerset, Bucks 

 and Suffolk ; more frequently in Herefordshire. In York- 

 shire, where the first specimens noticed in this country were 

 obtained in 1845, it is still found in certain localities, as well 

 as in Lancashire, Westmoreland, Cumberland and Durham. 

 This is, so far as I know, the extent of its range in these 

 Islands. Abroad it is found almost throughout Central 

 Europe and in Southern and Eastern Russia. 



2. P. rubricosa, Fab. — Expanse If inch. Fore wings 

 truncate, purple-red dusted with ashy-grey ; lines and 

 stigmata all extremely obscure ; costa spotted with chocolate 

 and pale yellow. Hind wings smoky yellowish-white. 



