Z12 LEPIDOPTERA. 



more careless, and may often be seen exposed; also that 

 when young it is not unusual for two or three to inhabit the 

 same tent between the leaves. The winter is passed in the 

 egg-state. 



Pupa apparently undescribed ; in a cocoon among dead 

 leaves and rubbish upon the ground ; but this state is not 

 assumed until about seven weeks after the larva has 

 spun up. 



The moth, according to the Rev. H. H, Crewe, is fond 

 of resting in the daytime amongst the leaves of ash, in 

 preference to those of beech or maple ; but he also says that 

 he has frequently observed it flying rapidly backwards and 

 forwards in the sunshine, between 4 and 5 p.m., on the out- 

 skirts of beech-woods. At dusk it comes to sugar, rarely if 

 placed in the trunks of beech-trees, but in favourable seasons 

 quite commonly if the mixture is daubed upon the leaves 

 of the outermost twigs of the lower branches, especially 

 where plenty of maple bushes are growing near. It is also 

 attracted occasionally by ivy bloom and the flowers of hop, 

 and has been taken at light. A very local species in this 

 country, and usually scarce, but in certain seasons abundant 

 in its favourite haunts, which seem to be mainly confined to 

 the counties of Bucks, Berks, Herts, and Oxford, and in 

 them to the slopes of chalk hills. Mr. C. Fenn says that it 

 was formerly common in one restricted locality in the London 

 outskirts, from which it is now quite exterminated. Still to 

 be found locally in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Wilts, Devon, 

 Somerset, Gloucestershire, Middlesex, Essex, Suffolk, Nor- 

 folk, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire, but apparently in 

 none of these counties so commonly as in the four first 

 mentioned. There is reason to believe that an extension 

 of its range has taken place quite recently, since in 1891 

 to 1893 it appeared in South Yorkshire, whence there had 

 been no previous record, and it has been taken, very rarely, 

 in Lancashire. 



