262 LEPIDOPTERA. 



scarcity of food, as, for instance, in Cornwall, where it has 

 been found [qnite toj neglect currant and gooseberry, while 

 feeding in abundance on some of the other plants just men- 

 tioned. InSHerts the same daintiness has been noticed in 

 certain years with regard to the Euonymus. I am further 

 informed by Mr. A. F. Griffiths that in the Hebrides the 

 larvae of this species feed, in multitudes, upon heather 

 {Calluna vulgaris), and that the moths, of ordinary colour 

 and markings, may be seen sitting, side by side, in hundreds 

 on the rocks close above. 



Hybernation takes place while it is quite young, sometimes 

 in a rolled or curled currant leaf, often in any interstice in a 

 wall or paling, or under almost any shelter where the larva 

 maybe kept moderately dry; although quite in repose, it 

 does not become torpid, but if disturbed will drop and hang 

 by a thread, returning to its retreat when the danger has 

 passed. If the summer is hot, some will occasionally con- 

 tinue to feed, instead of retiring for hybernation, and may 

 be found full grown at the end of autumn. In a recent 

 season — 1899 — for instance, Mr. N. Hey wood of Manchester 

 found pupa3*upon his currant trees at the end of November, 

 from which ^he ^reared moths, which he sent to me with a 

 still living pupa. A similar circumstance was noticed in 

 1879 by Mr. J. W. Douglas and others. But from all the 

 observations made, it seems certain that, except when 

 brought indoors and reared there in the winter, none of 

 these abnormally fed up larva? produce the perfect insects ; 

 all in that, or the pupa state, being killed by the winter 

 frosts or by excessive moisture. Possibly this fatal tendency 

 may help in some degree to check the vast increase of this 

 species which, with the help of Halia ivavaria, and the saw- 

 Hy JVonatus f/wssi'/aria', at times threatens the destruction of 

 tlie crops of currants and gooseberries in our gardens. Forty 

 years ago a close observer wrote : '• We have this year a 

 perfect plague of the larva? of this common insect, which 

 has appeared in immense numbers in all the gardens. I 



