BOARMID.-IiSELENIA. 91 



End of May, June, July, Aui^'ust, September, October, 

 feeding up quite irregularly iu some accordance with its 

 times of appearance in the two generations, iu domestication 

 or at liberty. Out of doors it usually feeds from July to 

 September. On oak, birch, ash, elm, blackthorn, and rose ; 

 feeding mainly at night, but resting on the twigs, which it 

 so closely resembles, by day. 



Pupa very robust ; head broad, thick and blunt ; antenna- 

 cases thick, raised, with a sharp ridge down the middle and 

 very prominent, showing conspicuously the pectinations ; 

 wing-covers embossed all over with thick raised ridges and 

 sinuous channels ; abdomen short and thick, its segments, 

 and those of the dorsal region, very thickly sculptured into 

 pits and ridges, except that the hinder band of each is 

 smooth and very dull ; cremaster thick and rather conical, 

 armed with a very rough corrugated spike on which are 

 small curled bristles ; colour dull pitchy black-brown, cre- 

 master black. In a rather closely fitting silken cocoon 

 between dead leaves drawn together ; or in moss on the 

 trunks of trees or walls. 



In this condition through the winter. 



The moth sits in the daytime with wings more than half 

 erect, the fore wings more so than the hind, on the branches 

 of trees, in bushes or upon them, even quite openly upon 

 hedges or low plants, or on the ground among dead leaves, 

 ahvays protected from qdj but the most instructed eye by its 

 close resemblance to a dried and crumpled leaf. When dis- 

 turbed it usually falls to the ground, but has been known to 

 fly vigorously to a fresh shelter. Its natural flight is at dusk, 

 and it is strongly attracted by light, sitting at night, with 

 raised wings, conspicuously upon a gas-lamp. I have 

 repeatedly seen it thus in Hither-Green Lane, and close to 

 the gates, on my visits to my kind friend and instructor 

 in Entomology, the late Mr. H. T. Stainton. It still exists, 

 though not commonly, in the outskirts of London, and is 



