322 LEPIDOPTERA. 



ground. At dusk it flies in a very conspicuous manner, but 

 generally keeps near to the nettle-beds. Plentiful in lanes, 

 road-sides, and all waste spots in which nettles are permitted 

 to grow, almost all over England, but apparently less so in 

 the north-west. So far as I know not abundant in Wales 

 — it certainly was not so in Pembrokeshire. Common in 

 the eastern portions of Scotland, to Forres and elsewhere in 

 Moray, though somewhat local ; also in the west to Dum- 

 bartonshire. In Ireland everywhere abundant. Abroad it 

 is common over nearly the whole of Europe, Asia Minor, 

 Tartary and the mountainous regions of Central Asia. 



[H. obsitalis, Hilb. — A pretty species of about the size and 

 shape of H. rostralis, or often smaller ; the fore wings similarly 

 truncate orretuse, usually of some shade of brown — light brown, 

 grey-brown, dull brown, or dark umbreous — with a triangular 

 yellow or grey-white blotch on the costa, running into the 

 apex, and before it a perpendicular partial stripe of the same 

 colour ; the rest of the wing rather clouded or shaded with 

 paler colour, especially so along the dorsal margin ; but very 

 variable, sometimes having a large and somewhat triangular 

 darker blotch from the costa occupying the middle portion of 

 the wing, and nearly always showing some trace of this. 



On the wing at the end of July. 



The larva is said to feed in May upon pellitory (Parietaria 

 officinalis) ; and the moth is reported to have a habit of 

 hiding in dark corners. 



A single example of this species was captured ou the 21st 

 September 1884 at rest on the door-jamb, in the flower- 

 garden at Bloxworth Rectory, Dorset, by the Rev. Octavius 

 Pickard-Cambridge. This is the only instance of which I 

 have any knowledge, of its occurrence in these Islands, and 

 although the species has, on account of this capture, been in- 

 troduced into British Lists, there seems little reason to 

 believe that the specimen was other than an accidental im- 

 portation, at some stage of life, from the Continent. It is 



