BOARMIIX^—NYSSIA. I43 



a large seakale pot iu which I placed fiaely-sifted earth to a 

 depth of at least teu inches, and in this fed up my larvie. They 

 duly went down, and in the course of the summer somebody 

 knocked down the pot and broke it, when I found that the 

 larvfB had burrowed down to the bottom, their passages still 

 existing and crossing each other in every direction. They 

 had become pupge in the burrows \vithout making any 

 cocoon." In the Weekly Untoiiiologist (1863) Mr. J. B. Black- 

 burn told how he made a journey to the wood whence lii& 

 larvEe were procured to obtain suitable soil in which they 

 could burrow, and that all those placed with this earth went 

 down and became pupas ; but that all those placed upon soil 

 from his own garden, with one exception, refused to burrow^ 

 and died on the surface of the earth. 

 The winter is passed in the pupa state. 



The moth sits upon oak trunks in the daytime, especially 

 just after emergence ; the female very inconspicuously, near 

 the ground. At dusk the male flies vigorously, and at this 

 time the female also becomes active, running rapidly up the 

 trees. The male flies again between 10 and 11 p.m. and will 

 then come to a strong light. Some specimens of the male, 

 in collections, have the abdomen pufied out rather large, and 

 the anal segment turned under, so that they suggest the 

 appearance of females ; and it is doubtless from this circum- 

 stance that Donovan, at the beginning of the present century,, 

 figured what he supposed to be the female, winged as in the 

 male, but with the pectinations of the antennae shorter. He- 

 also stated that both sexes had been reared by Drur}', yet 

 evidently did not know that the female is apterous. I do- 

 not know whether this will be held by any one to be evidence 

 of recent degradation of the female in this species ! 



A very local species ; found in oak woods and in ])ark& 

 with plenty of scattered oak trees. Apparently the earliest 

 records of its occurrence in this country were obtained from 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire ; but for many years Richmond. 



