STIGMONOTIDAL—SEMASIA. 167 



darts hastily away and goes to another tree, but late in the 

 afternoon, and till dusk, flies swiftly about the higher 

 branches. Common in gardens and orchards throughout 

 England and Wales, even abundant in the London suburbs ; 

 found also in Scotland to Perthshire and the Edinburgh and 

 Clyde districts. In Ireland recorded only from Belfast, 

 but probably to be found elsewhere. Abroad common wher- 

 ever fruit trees grow throughout Europe and Siberia. 



5. S. rufiUana, Zdl\ gallicana, Staud. Cat. — Expanse 

 ^ inch (12-mm.). Fore wings rich black-brown, much 

 mottled with faint silvery purple. 



Antennae dull brown ; palpi and head pale ochreous- 

 brown ; thorax dull brown ; abdomen blackish-brown. Fore 

 wings not very narrow; costa flatly arched, apex bluntly 

 angulated, hind margin rather oblique ; dark brown 

 mottled with black and dusted a little with golden yellow ; 

 three or four pairs of whitish costal streaks are prolonged 

 into lustrous silvery purple transverse irregular lines ; 

 ocellus composed of silvery purple streaks, outside which 

 are two faintly yellow upright lines ; cilia pale smoke 

 colour. Hind wings smoky black ; cilia dull black. Female 

 similar. 



Undersides of all the wings dark leaden-brown ; costa of 

 fore wings minutely dotted with pale yellow. 



On the wing from the end of June till August. 



Larva somewhat swollen, with sharply constricted seg- 

 ments, bone colour ; head honey-yellow ; dorsal plate oval, 

 yellowish with a cross-mark ; anal plate round, curtailed, 

 (Hofmann.) When full grown more tinged with pink. 



September and October in the seeds of wild carrot 

 (Baucus carota), also in those of Angelica si/lvestris, 

 Heracleum sphondylium, Silaus 'pratensis^ Pastinaca sativa and 

 PeiMedanum palustre, spinning two or three seeds together 

 and eating out their substance. Several larvae are said 



