354 LEPIDOP TERA . 



Larva plump, thickest behind, tapering a little to the 

 head, which is rounded, yellow-brown; dorsal plate dark 

 brown or black, with the white lines shining distinctly 

 through it; general colour red-brown; dorsal line white, 

 enlarged on each segment into an oval spot ; subdorsal lines 

 white, but faint and very slender; spiracular stripe hardly 

 indicated; spiracles black; undersurface and legs reddish- 

 yellow ; raised dots minute, white. 



March or April to May or June, on oak, hawthorn, and 

 beech, but Hofmann says that it feeds while very young in 

 spun-together leaves of beech, but when full grown on low- 

 growing plants, eating at night and hiding at the roots by 

 day. 



The winter is passed in the egg-state. 



Pupa apparently undescribed ; in the earth. 



The moth hides, like its congeners, among thick herbage 

 and dead leaves in the day, and comes eagerly to sugar, ivy- 

 bloom, ripe blackberries, and other sweets, including rotten 

 apples, at dusk. Principally found in woods and well-wooded 

 districts, especially those away from the coast. Common 

 throughout the South, East, and West of England; rare 

 or absent from many parts of the Midland Counties, but 

 has been taken in North Staffordshire ; local in Lancashire 

 and Cheshire, abundant in Lincolnshire and some parts of 

 Yorkshire, and fairly common in the inland portions of the 

 more northern counties. Quite common in Wales to Pem- 

 brokeshire. Found throughout the south of Scotland to 

 Perthshire and Fife, and in Kincardineshire, Aberdeenshire, 

 and Moray. In Ireland common in the Dublin district, 

 Wicklow, Waterford, Kerry, Sligo, Cavan, Westmeath, King's 

 County, Tyrone, and Londonderry, and often abundant. Its 

 range abroad is not considerable, being apparently confined 

 to Central Europe, North Italy, and Denmark. 



