222 LEPIDOPTERA. 



by auy bright light, so that on a hot summer night, when 

 the top portions of windows are thrown open, the males come 

 in, sometimes in numbers, rush into the lighted gas-flame 

 and precipitate themselves, singed, upon the supper table, 

 to the no small discomfort of the ladies. Both sexes are in 

 some degree attracted, but only the males in any numbers. 

 Less common in the country, yet to be found in tolerable 

 plenty throughout England and Wales, in the cultivated 

 •districts, though most abundantly in the South and the 

 metropolis. In Scotland it seems to have been confined to 

 the South and East, but in 1890 Dr. Buchanan White 

 reported that its range was extending, and that it was 

 becoming common at Perth. In Ireland it is local, of course 

 preferring the suburbs of towns, and has been taken freely 

 in Dublin, Wicklow, Waterford, Cork, Kerrj^, Galway, Sligo 

 and Fermanagh. Abroad it is found all over Europe, with 

 little variation in colour, also in Asia Minor, Syria, Armenia, 

 Tartary, the mountainous regions of Central Asia, and 

 Japan. 



Genus 36. HEMEROPHILA. 



Antennae of the male partially pectinated, the tip simple ; 

 palpi small ; head rough ; thorax narrow, roughened with 

 raised scales ; abdomen slender, smooth ; fore wings elongated, 

 pointed, crenulated behind ; hind wings rather broad, the 

 hind margin in part deeply scalloped, with long intermediate 

 points. 



We have but one species. 



1. H. abruptaria, Thunh. — Expanse li to If inch. 

 Fore wings crenulated behind, pale brown or wainscot colour, 

 with strong umbreous clouding ; a very oblique slender 

 brown line from the middle of the dorsal margni to the apex 

 of the wing is, in its upper half, bordered beneath by a long 

 red-brown blotch ; hind wings deeply scalloped behind, simi- 

 larly coloured, and barred with umbreous. 



