8 LEPIDOPTERA. 



The moth hides during the day in oak bushes and the 

 thickly leaved branches of oak trees, and may occasionally 

 be beaten out, though in this case it commonly falls to the 

 ground. It flies at dusk and far into the night ; will come 

 to sugar placed on the trunks of oaks to attract Noctujo, or to 

 a strong light, and is not an infrequent visitor to suburban 

 gas lamps, where it sits quietly upon the glass. Formerly 

 common in London suburbs, though now apparently absent ; 

 usually confined to woods, but tolerably common throughout 

 the Southern and Eastern counties of England, and occurring 

 in the Western counties to Lancashire ; also fonnd locally in 

 Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and Westmoreland ; but, so far as I 

 know, not in Scotland. In Wales it is not scarce in the few 

 large woods in Pembrokeshire, and probably elsewhere ; and 

 in Ireland is found in county Cork. Abroad it is common 

 in Central Europe and some parts of Southern Europe, in 

 Livonia, and the Caucasian regions. 



2. A. tumidella, Zh. — Expanse f to \ inch (18-22 mm.). 

 Fore wings rather broadly elongate, the base rufous ; first 

 line white, edged with deep black, and followed by rich red 

 clouding, which also borders the second line. Hind wings 

 dark smoky-brown. 



Antennas of the male thick, simple, but with tufted basal 

 joint, and the second thickened and elbowed, pale brown, 

 barred at the back with white ; palpi slender, pointed, curved- 

 up, brown ; head bi-ownish-white or reddish-white ; thorax 

 yellowish-red ; abdomen grej'-brown, the segments broadly 

 edged with dull white. Eore wings elongated, rather broad; 

 the costa gently arched ; apex bluntly angulated ; hind mar- 

 gin nearly straight and a little oblique ; colour of the basal 

 area rufous or orange-red to the first line ; the latter is very 

 conspicuous, a double stripe of pure white inwardly, and 

 then of intense black, rather oblique and very faintly curved ; 

 from this black bar a large rich crimson-red cloud extends to 

 the middle of the wing, shading off into a pale purplish-grey 



