76 LEPIDOPTERA. 



dock, and other herbaceous plants ; also on sallow, bramble, 

 hawthorn, blackthorn, honeysuckle, and whortleberry, attack- 

 ing the young shoots in the spring. 



Pupa of the ordinary form, very glossy, red-brown. In a 

 loose cocoon of earth, with a little silk, beneath the surface of 

 the ground. 



The moth hides, like its congeners, in the daytime, among 

 dead leaves and herbage close to the ground, and is rarely 

 observed by daylight. In the evening it flies vigorously, and 

 comes in plenty to sugar on tree-trunks in woods. It is also 

 attracted by honeydew, the sweet secretions of aphides on 

 nettles, the blossoms of tansy, and almost anything of a sweet 

 nature. It is also occasionally taken at light. 



In its more ordinary forms it seems to inhabit the whole of 

 the United Kingdom, even to the Orkney and Shetland Isles, 

 but is mainly confined to woods and well-wooded districts, 

 and in them usually abundant. In agricultural districts it is 

 less common, and scarce in some parts of the Eastern counties, 

 especially so in the fen districts. On the hills from Stafford- 

 shire northward, and also on heaths and moors throughout 

 Scotland and the Isles, the smaller, more jDurplish, blunt- 

 winged form occurs often abundantly ; it is also common on 

 Dartmoor, Devon, but I have no record of it in Wales. As 

 already stated, the narrow-winged form, found more especially 

 in the Shetland Isles, also occurs casually in other parts of 

 Scotland, and even rarely in Ireland. In the northern parts 

 of the latter country bright pinkish-red forms with very 

 bright markings are usual. 



So much obscurity hangs over the variations of this species, 

 with especial reference to the question of the possible distinct- 

 ness of the form or forms known as i\^. conflua, and there is 

 so much debate as to which form is entitled to the latter 

 name, that a little space may perhaps be given to the subject. 

 Treitschke originally described conjlua: "Thorax reddish- 

 leather colour, thickly covered with scales, abdomen paler, 



