274 LEPIDOPTERA. 



of 1896 and 1897 than lio,d occurred in these Islands in all 

 previous years. Mr. F. 0. Woodforde writes : " Its habits 

 are peculiar ; I took about ten specimens in a month at sugar, 

 sugaring every night ; most of them were taken between 

 10 P.M. and midnight, one at least later; when everything 

 else had gone was the best time for cxigua ; they never flew 

 on misty or foggy nights; they seemed to like the wind, and 

 it never blew too strongly for them. I took one on a night 

 in which I could hardly keep my lantern alight or my cap on 

 my head, and when there was hardly another insect to be 

 seen, even the commonest." This love for a high wind was 

 exhibited also by a specimen which I myself took, flying at a 

 gas lamp upon which it could hardly secure itself. Besides 

 at sugar and light, occasional specimens have been obtained at 

 night on blossoms of ivy in the autumn, sallow in the spring, 

 and hemp-agrimony in the summer. In the daytime it has 

 been beaten out of concealment among furze and heather ; 

 and has been induced to take wing in bright sunshine. This 

 I witnessed on a sand-warren lying between two stretches 

 of rocky coast in the west of Pembrokeshire. It was our last 

 visit to that interesting coast, and as we walked toward the 

 shore, up sprang from our feet a moth which from its swift 

 perpendicular flight and white hind wings was easily distin- 

 guishable from the hosts of Ncmoiiliila hyhridalis which were 

 starting up in every direction. After its spring, straight up, 

 of fifteen or twenty feet, it came straight down into the short 

 grass and strove to hide its head in the sand, then when 

 again disturbed, rose up perpendicularly as before, and came 

 down into a bunch of the Marram grass, from which it 

 graciously allowed itself to be boxed. These details appear 

 worthy of notice since the moth is so very little known. 

 The first specimen noticed in this country seems to have 

 been taken in the Isle of Wight, before 1855, and is in 

 the collection of the late Mr. H. Doubleday, at Bethnal Green 

 Museum. Two were taken in 1856, one at Brighton, the 

 other in the Isle of Wight by Dr. Wallace, from which the 



