82 LEPIDOPTERA. 



The economy of this species is very puzzling. The moth 

 loves open woods and bushy places on heaths. Sometimes it 

 is quite common among stunted oak bushes, sitting on the 

 iipper side of the leaves in the afternoon sunshine, where it 

 has an exquisitely beautiful appearance, but instantl}^ buzzing 

 away if at all disturbed ; sometimes frequenting hazel in 

 the same manner. In the more open heaths frequenting 

 low-growing thick sallow bushes {Salix fuscci), sitting on the 

 leaves or hiding in the dense masses, but flying out instantly 

 if disturbed, and particularly active in the latest afternoon 

 sunshine; but apparently affording no evidence of attach- 

 ment to any particular plant, and at dusk frequenting the 

 bushes on which it rested in the daytime ; yet all search for 

 its larva on oak, sallow, or hazel seems to result in dis- 

 appointment. In localities such as here described in the 

 Southern Counties from Kent to Devon, in the Eastern to 

 Norfolk — where it is common — also in Gloucestershire, 

 Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Huntingdonshire ; north- 

 ward in Yorkshire and Cumberland, and formerly in Lanca- 

 shire ; but I find no records in other parts of the United 

 Kingdom. Abroad it is common through Central Europe^ 

 and found in Southern Kussia, Finland, and Bithynia. 



3. S. minutana, Eilb. — Expanse \ to {: inch (12-16 

 mm.). Fore wings pale reddish-yellow, mottled all over with 

 transverse dark brown streaks which obscure the darker 

 basal and central markings. 



Antennae brown, ringed with paler ; palpi, head, and thorax 

 pale brownish drab ; abdomen pale brown. Fore wings 

 rather even in breadth, not long ; costa flatly arched, ajjex 

 faintly projecting, hind margin retuse ; reddish-white or 

 pale reddish-yellow, thickly sprinkled with brown dots and 

 cross streaks ; basal blotch large, angulated outwardly, com- 

 ])0sed of small black streaks shaded with brown; central 

 liand oblique, similar but more clouded with black; beA'Oud 



