156 LEl'inOPTERA. 



both ground colour and markings much palei'. A male 

 example of ordinary colour, takon in 1S95, in Surrey, by 

 Mr. A. Dennis, is without antennte, its liead shaped very 

 much like that of its larva, being large, smooth, shining and 

 horny, and showing the jaws slightly crossed at their tips, 

 yet soldered into a solid mask. I know of no way of 

 accounting for this extraordinary monstrosity. When alive 

 it was active and eager to fly, yet was found on the ground, 

 aad most probably was unable to direct its flight. This 

 specimen is in my own collection. 



On the wing at the end of June and in July. 



Larva yellow-green with chestnut-brown head, yellow 

 dorsal-plate, and black anterior feet. In May and June 

 between drawn-together needles of spruce and silver firs and 

 juniper. (Hofmann.) Also on Scotch fir (^Pinus si/lvcstris), 

 on which only it seems to have been found hei'C. Mr. South 

 says that it usually feeds on the spun-together leaves of the 

 lateral branches of large trees, and is exceedingly active and 

 difficult to secure, slipping out at the back of its domicile 

 when disturbed. Schmidt says that it sometimes feeds in 

 preference on juniper, making a thick white web among the 

 leaves. 



Pupa red-brown. In the larval habitation. 



The moth hides during the day among the leaves (needles) 

 of large fir trees, from which it may be dislodged with a 

 long stick, flying then heavily to another branch or to the 

 ground. At the earliest dnsk it begins to fly actively over 

 the fir trees. For many years a single specimen taken in 

 the New Forest, Hants, long ago by the late Mi\ Stone, and 

 long in the collection of the late Mr. Edwin Shepherd, was 

 the only known British example of this very handsome 

 species. In the year 18G8 I had the good fortune to take a 

 specimen in Woolmer Forest, Hants, by beating a fir tree, 

 and for twenty years these two, both females, remained the 

 only specimens representing it in these Islands. IJut in 1888 



