134 LEPIDOPTERA. 



lines, but with longitudinal raised ridges towards the tips ; 

 dorsal region rather rugged, and, with the middle bands of 

 the abdominal segments pitted in a faint degree ; the hind 

 bands broad and smooth ; crem aster broad and short, and 

 rather rough at the base, but its spike thick and tapering off, 

 long, straight, and faintly divided at the tip ; whole surface 

 glossy, abdomen very so; deep dark red-brown or nearly 

 black-brown, blackest upon the anal segment: the wing- 

 covers rather tinged with green. In the ground, hardly with 

 any but the most friable cocoon. 



In this condition through the winter. 



The moth, like its congeners, is sluggish in the daytime, 

 remaining at rest on the base of a tree or of a paling, or 

 hanging to a twig in a hedge or bush, or to any low- 

 growing herbage, with wings laid rather broadly apart from 

 the body, the fore wings covering the hind. At dusk it flies 

 and is rather strongly attracted by light ; but, as is the case 

 with very many allied species, takes, so far as is known, no 

 kind of nourishment. Not at all restricted to woods, yet 

 inhabiting them ; quite as much attached to hedges and 

 wayside trees, and even gardens where there is any shrubbery. 

 Still to be found in the outskirts of London, and, though 

 never really abundant, fairly common throughout England 

 and Wales ; apparently more common in the Midhand and 

 North-Western Counties than elsewhere. Also not scai-ce in 

 the South of Scotland, though, as already remarked, only in 

 normal forms, and found so far as Argyle, Perthshire, 

 Moray, and Aberdeenshire. In Ireland rather widely dis- 

 tributed, and even somewhat common in the North, recorded 

 from near Dublin, Louth, Derry, Armagh, Fermanagh, 

 King's County, Westmeath, Mayo, Sligo, Galway, Kerry, 

 Cork and Wicklow. Abroad its range is extensive through 

 Central Europe, all temperate Northern Europe, Northern 

 Italy, Southern and Eastern Russia, Eastern Siberia, and the 

 Central Asian mountain districts. 



