BOARMID^—NYSSIA. 151 



kept alive I have known the males to live for three weeks, 

 without flying or damaging themselves in any way, and at 

 last to die with the cilia of their wings still perfect. This 

 must, I think, be in some cases the result of unsuitable 

 climate, since a quite different account of its habits comes 

 from perfectly reliable observers in the North of Ireland. 

 The Rev. J. Bristowe says that he found male specimens, 

 rather smaller than English examples, "flying from three to 

 four P.M. in the sunshine, in a lively buzzing manner, like a 

 Procris, but with a rather heavier flight, about three feet from 

 the ground;" and Mr. C. W. Watts tells how "when they 

 are at rest on the sand they have a queer trick of turning on 

 their backs when approached, and curling their abdomens as 

 though in a threatening manner, which the yellow banding 

 rather enhances." 



For many years the one locality for this species has been 

 on the sandy shores of the estuary of the Dee, on the 

 Cheshire and Flintshire side almost to Conway, and on the 

 north side to Wallasey and New Brighton ; here it seems to 

 have been discovered about the year 1832, although not 

 recognised as a British species till 1834. For nearly half a 

 century this succession of waste sand-hills appeared to be 

 the sole locality, and from it specimens have been obtained 

 in such plenty that every collector was easily able to place 

 the insect in his cabinet. Curious statements, made in 

 1844-5 by Mr. J. B. Hodgkinson, did not, as it now appears, 

 receive the attention to which they were entitled : " A friend 

 of mine who lately visited the Isle of Skye observed a great 

 number of the larvas of a Geometra, very similar to those of 

 Abraxas grossulnriata ; they were feeding on the burdock on 

 the summit of Ben Beckley, where he shot a rock dove, the 

 crop of which was completely gorged with them. A few of 

 these larvas have since changed into pupas. . . . Respecting 

 some larvEe which were found in the Isle of Skye, I learned 

 that a female Nyssia zonaria had come out this spring from 

 one of the chrysalides which was uninjured. Now, it is a 



