TRIFID^E. 33 



night old, pellucid green with distinct whitish longitudinal 

 lines ; a week later full bright green with the lines whitish- 

 yellow ; and at a month old rich full velvety-green with the 

 lines and raised dots bright sulphur-yellow — the colouring- 

 being now at its brightest ; afterwards the colour of the 

 body becomes olive-brown, and the adult appearance is soon 

 assumed. (Adapted from Buckler.) 



April to June on alder (Alnus glutinosa). For the first 

 three weeks of its life it lives and feeds within the hollows 

 between the ribs of the partially expanded young alder- 

 leaves, afterwards apparently feeding more openly. 



Pupa rather thick in proportion ; the thorax, wing, leg, and 

 antenna cases finely corrugated, and the abdominal segments 

 rather smooth, terminating in a hooked point by which it is 

 firmly attached to one end of the cocoon ; colour dark brown ; 

 incisions of the segments brownish-red and the whole surface 

 shining. In an oval cocoon of whitish silk, close but semi- 

 transparent ; placed in moss or a folded leaf, or between a 

 fallen leaf and the soil. (Buckler.) 



But little is known of the habits of the moth in this 

 country. It has been taken in the daytime, once, sitting 

 upon a birch-trunk, but almost all the captures have been at 

 night at sugar or ivy-bloom, to which it is strongly attracted. 

 The first record of its appearance in this country seems to be 

 in a short note by the late Mr. H. T. Stainton in 1861 : " In 

 the county of Glamorgan Xylina conformis occurs ; it comes 

 to ivy-bloom in October and to sugar in March." Not a 

 word is furnished as to the name of the captor, the date of 

 first capture, or the actual locality ; but two specimens were 

 exhibited at a meeting of the Entomological Society of 

 Loudon in March 1861. Some years later Mr. T. H. Allis 

 put on record the occurrence of a single specimen taken near 

 Halifax, Yorks, many years before. In 1869 it appears to 

 have been taken in Monmouthshire ; and also reared from 

 eggs obtained presumably in the Glamorganshire locality, 



vol. vi. c 



