BOARMIDsE—OURAPTERYX. 343 



The moth hides during the day in thick bushes, hedges 

 especially, under ivy leaves, and in dense herbage generally. 

 At dusk it flies with great vigour, but in a very erratic 

 manner, along lanes and hedges, the margins of woods, 

 shrubberies, and gardens where there is ivy on the walls, and 

 from its colour is then a conspicuous object, and most exciting 

 to the young collector. It may benefit the latter to know 

 that when caught it must not be killed by means of ammonia, 

 or the colour may be faded to yellow-brown. 



Abundant throughout the South of England to the Scilly 

 Isles, and to be found, in more moderate numbers, in all 

 parts of England, though scarce in Cumberland and appa- 

 rently not noticed in North Northumberland — Mr. Robson 

 says that it is generally common in Durham and around 

 Newcastle but is not found beyond the valley of the Tyne. 

 In Scotland it has been found flying along the edge of a 

 wood near Wigtown by Mr. R. S. Gordon, and there is an 

 old record in Midlothian. Further west it seems to have 

 occurred at Langholm near Glasgow, and in the Solway 

 district. In Wales records are scarce, but it is doubtless 

 of general occurrence, since I have found it at Pembroke. 

 In Ireland it is widely distributed — from Waterf ord and Cork 

 to Deny and Armagh — and in some districts, as Kerry, 

 Monaghan, and Dublin County, abundant. Abroad it has a 

 considerable range through Central Europe, Sweden, the 

 Northern half of Italy, Corsica, Dalrnatia. Livonia, Southern 

 and Eastern Russia, Asia Minor, Armenia, and Tartary. 



So far as Europe is concerned it stands, as a species, very 

 much alone ; but it has numerous Asiatic allies, some tending 

 in the direction of Abraxas^ some greatly resembling 

 Acidalia. 



