300 LEPID OP TERA . 



black lines, crossed everywhere by stippled Hues of mixed 

 black and brown ; dorsal region brown, much streaked and 

 spotted with dull black; abdominal segments red-brown, 

 clouded and edged with dull Ijlack, rough, but not distinctly 

 pitted ; cremaster llattened beneath, triangular, tiijped with 

 hooked bristles which are fixed tightly to the silk of the very 

 slight cocoon ; upon this last are placed the bits of brown 

 bud-scale vised by the larva as its covering. 



The moth hides during the day among thick undergrowth 

 and masses of honeysuckle in oakwoods. and is not easily 

 induced at that time to fly. though occasionally it may be 

 beaten out of oak branches ; but directly after sunset it 

 becomes lively and dances briskly over the herbage and about 

 the wood paths, sometimes descending almost to the ground, 

 then mounting with a sort of bounding flight above the oak- 

 trees. If a female is hidden among the undergrowth, quite 

 an assemblage of males may be seen hovering and fluttering 

 about the neighbourhood. Later at night it seems to take 

 more extensive flights, and I have even taken it at a gas- 

 lamp in Camberwell, situated at a considerable distance from 

 any suitable oakwood. Mr. Chas. Fenn tells me that it has 

 been attracted by light even into his house at Lewisham. 

 It formerly inhabited portions of the North London suburbs 

 also, being found in the woods at Hampstead and Highgate, 

 and probably may be there still. Elsewhere it seems to be 

 confined to woods and their immediate neighbourhood, and 

 often to very restricted areas within them, but with these 

 limitations is to be found throughout the Southern Counties 

 of England, also the Eastern to Lincolnshire, and, with the 

 exception of Cornwall, the Western to Salop; in the Mid- 

 lands it is very rare, but is recorded in Warwickshire, once 

 in Leicestershire, and once at Swynnerton Old Park, in North 

 Staffordshire. It seems to be unknown farther North, and I 

 find no record for Wales or Ireland. Abroad it is found 

 through Central Europe, Northern Italy, Southern Spain, 

 Livonia, the Balkan States, and Southern Kussia. 



