98 LEPIDOPTERA. 



The moth flies sometimes in the sunshine about its favourite 

 flowers, and must be a gorgeous object when at rest upon a 

 bunch of blossoms of hemp-agrimony. It is said also to 

 frequent blossoms of viper's bugloss and even meadow-sweet 

 at that time, and certainly flies occasionally about bracken 

 and other herbage. But its favourite time of flight is after 

 dusk, at which time it is again attracted by these flowers and 

 those of honeysuckle. 



Apparently known as an inhabitant of this country from 

 very early times, but usually only as a rarity. Stephens 

 (about 1830) recorded its capture in some numbers near 

 Newbury, Berks; and about the year 1856 a good number 

 of specimens were taken in successive years on the coast 

 near Deal, Kent. After this it again became very rare, and 

 so continued until 1882, when a few specimens were taken 

 at Chippenham Fen, Cambridgeshire. Here also larva? were 

 found, and in this and the imago state it has continued to be 

 taken in that neighbourhood, and in some years in moderate 

 numbers. Besides these localities, it is recorded, rarely or 

 singly, from various parts of Kent, Sussex, Hants, Dorset, 

 Devon, Cornwall, the Cotswolds and elsewhere in Gloucester- 

 shire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and even Lancashire. Also in Wales, 

 in Glamorganshire and Pembrokeshire. I know of no other 

 locality in these islands. Abroad, though rather local, it has 

 a very extensive range — the South and East of France, 

 Northern Germany, Switzerland, Northern Italy, Northern 

 and Eastern Turkey, Southern and Eastern Russia, Armenia, 

 Tartary, the mountainous regions of Central Asia, and 

 Japan. 



2. P. chrysitis, L. — Expanse \\ to 1^ inch. Fore 

 wings broad, pointed, dull brown or reddish-umbreous, with 

 two brilliant golden, or greenish-golden, broad transverse 

 bands, sometimes united below the middle ; hind wings dark- 

 brown. 



Antenna? of the male moderately thick, almost naked, 



