ACIDALIin.-E—l'J>l/ ) RA. 307 



gradually narrowed as it proceeds dow award and ijaekward ; 

 ventral area paler, with several dark markings, particularly 

 on the ninth segment, legs and prolegs concolorous with the 

 body. A less common variety is pale apple-green with a 

 reddish head. (E. Newman.) 



In one of the varieties figured by Mr. r^uckler there is a 

 broad white spiracular stripe, rising to each of the oblique 

 black marks and snddenly falling at its upper end; another 

 has transverse blackish dorsal bars. 



June and July, and a partial second generation in Sep- 

 tember and October; on oak and birch. When at rest it 

 stands with its anterior extremity free, but not stiffly erect, 

 rather bending into a sort of arch. 



Pupa much like that of a little slender butterfly, rather 

 truncate in front, with points at the shoulders : slender and 

 tapering behind ; pale green with two rows of darker spots 

 on the back, and two round spikes on the creniaster, hooked 

 at their tips. On the underside of a dead leaf where a silken 

 carpet has been prepared by the larva, to which the hooks 

 of the cremaster are attached; also havino- a silken airth 

 across the back. In this condition through the winter. 



The moth sits in the daytime in thick bushes of oak or 

 birch, and if disturbed flits gently away to a similar shelter. 

 Its natural flight is at dusk, but it seems seldom to be cap- 

 tured at that time, yet later at night will come to a strong- 

 light, and has been found at sugar, and at heather-bloom. 

 Almost restricted to woods and wooded heaths: formerly 

 rather common in the London district, whence it seems now 

 to have almost disappeared ; still to be found, though usually 

 in no great abundance, from Kent to Devon, and in the Scilly 

 Isles; also through Somerset, Gloucestershire, Bucks and 

 Oxfordshire ; very uncommonly in the Eastern Counties, but 

 more frequently in the West, in Herefordshire, Worcester- 

 shire, Cheshire and Lancashire ; almost absent from the Mid- 

 lands, except some heathy woods in North Staffordshire; once 



