54 LEFIDOPTERA. 



no other indication of its especial attachment to that plant 

 is furnished. It Hies in the sunshine if disturbed, and then 

 settles again on moss or grass, but it is fully on the wing in 

 the morning before and after sunrise. It was first recorded 

 as British in 187] by the late Mr. Nicholas Cooke, who took 

 it in abundance on Craig Maige, a mountain in the Count}' 

 of Inverness ; since then it has been found on other moun- 

 tains in the same district, and in Eoss, Aberdeenshire, For- 

 farshire, and Perthshire. The capture of two or three 

 specimens on Helvellyn was recorded in 1874 by Mr. J. C, 

 Wasserman, but I can find no confirmation of the presence 

 of the insect in this locality nor any record of the capture in 

 any other pai't of England, nor in Wales or Ireland. Abroad 

 it seems to be common on the mountains of Europe and 

 Central Asia. 



3. S. metallicana, Hilh. ,• daieana, Bhld. ,• alternana, 



Willx. — Expanse | to | inch (15-18 mm.). Fore wings rather 

 broad, glossy pale olive brown with rather darker basal, 

 central, and apical bands. 



Antennee brown with wdiiter downy cilia ; palpi, head, 

 thorax, and abdomen olive brown. Fore wings rather broad, 

 costa gently arched, apex blunt, hind margin rounded and 

 filled out; olive brown, faintly darker in the middle; some- 

 times showing an erect, roughly edged, central band, and 

 occasionally an equally erect and rough basal blotch ; beyond 

 the middle is often an oblique olive brown cloudy band and a 

 broad apical patch, but usually all these markings are in- 

 definite and indistinct, or simply indicated b}^ silvery scales 

 at their margins ; cilia dull white. Hind wings smoky brown, 

 with whitish cilia. Female rather smaller, its markings 

 sometimes more definite and distinct. 



Underside of the fore wings leaden brown. Hind wings 

 leaden white. 



In specimens from the mountains of Central Europe the 



