142 LEPIDOPTERA. 



Enclosed in a compact silken cocoon lined inside with brown 

 papery-looking silk, among leaves or rubbisli on the surface 

 of the ground. (0. Fenn.) The winter is passed in this 

 state. 



The moth sits occasionally on palings or posts in the day- 

 time, but more generally among herbage, and is never, I 

 think, known to fly at that time either voluntarily or from 

 being disturbed. It flies actively at dusk, and is strongly 

 attracted by the flowers of red valerian (Centranthus ruber), 

 nettle, honeysuckle, Silene and Lychnis, and by any suitable 

 cultivated flowers, being especially fond of gardens. Thirty 

 years ago it was quite common in the outskirts of London, 

 and might be found on any fine June evening in the gardens 

 at Camberwell and Peckham. Even yet a specimen may 

 occasionally be seen, and one came into the room in which 

 I am writing last summer, evidently attracted by the light. 

 Rather rare on the coast of Kent and in the south-west 

 corner of the kingdom, but otherwise found throughout the 

 southern half of England, and often rather commonly ; scarcer 

 and more local in Norfolk and the northern Midland Counties ; 

 and to be met with in Herefordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire. 

 Yorkshire, and Cumberland. In Wales the only record of 

 which I am aware is my own at Pembroke, where it was very 

 scarce. In Scotland it is found in Ayrshire and other parts 

 of the Clyde Valley, also in the districts of the Solway, 

 Tweed, and Forth, and in Kincardineshire. In Ireland it is 

 more widely distributed and much more plentiful, being found 

 in the counties of Galway, Sligo, Carlingford, Monaghan, 

 Westmeath, Louth, Armagh, Antrim, Donegal, and London- 

 derry, and also in the extreme south-west, in Kerry. 

 Abroad its range is over the whole of Europe, except the 

 extreme north, Northern Africa, Asia Minor, Persia, and 

 Siberia. 



