DELTOIDES. 297 



the spring. In some instances, however, pupation takes 

 place in the autumn, and the moth appears before the 

 winter. The food is variously stated. One of Mr. Buckler's 

 larvae was taken off a sallow bush at night in April ; but it 

 refused to eat, being full-fed. Others which had been fed 

 up from the egg by the late Mr. Wellman, fed and throve 

 upon Polygonum aviculare, and were reared upon it in the 

 same season. Mr. Alfred Balding informs me that this larva 

 has been found plentifully upon ivy, and that they were beaten 

 out of that plant freely in September, and put into a vessel 

 with ivy leaves. They, however, declined to feed thereupon, 

 and retired for hibernation, yet were duly reared in the 

 following summer. In this case they may have been feeding 

 on the dead leaves which become so much entangled in the 

 ivy. Treitschke says that it feeds on raspberry, but Hofmann 

 only gives as the food withered leaves. Probably the creature 

 is not too particular as to its food. 



Pupa a little more than half an inch in length ; moderately 

 stout; the abdomen tapered off very slightly towards the 

 tip, which terminates in a spike of two diverging recurved 

 spines, its base encircled by six others of shorter lengths ; 

 colour dark brown, with but little gloss, the surface being 

 very minutely pitted, except the abdominal segments which 

 are rather shining. (W. Buckler.) Under a leaf on the 

 ground, or within the curve of a dead leaf, in a slight web, 

 sometimes in that in which it has passed the winter. 



The moth is more especially attached to hedges, preferring 

 those bordering country lanes, fields, or gardens, hiding itself 

 therein during the day but readily induced to fly by the 

 persuasion of the beating stick ; hiding again in a similar 

 place at a short distance. It flies of its own accord at dusk, 

 and will come occasionally to sugar or to light. Common in 

 such situations in all the Southern and Eastern Counties, 

 and westward at least to Devon; also in the Southern 

 Midlands and in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, becoming 



