t26 LEPIDOPTERA. 



Pupa. " Chestnut brown and very lively ; it has a dark, 

 often conspicuous, cremaster, which is broadly obtuse at the 

 end, leaving at each angle two strong sharp bristles. The 

 skin thrown off the larva very often remains attached to the 

 cremaster. Thelarvaj appear to assume the pupa state at the 

 end of May or beginning of June, within a cavity eaten into 

 the moss or turf, not far from the surface ; the moth appears 

 in from four to eight weeks and the empty pupa cases are 

 then very fragile and of a pale yellow colour." 



The moth with us appears to fly only at night, and comes 

 very sparingly to sugar. Apparently it has not been found 

 here in the daytime. Doubtless it hides among grass and 

 herbage. In Iceland it may be found in the daytime sitting 

 about upon the ground and on the rocks or the grass ; its 

 flight at night is very swift, and in July Dr. Staudinger 

 found it flying in the day time in the hottest sunshine and 

 settled on various flowers, giving the preference to those of 

 Thymus scrpijllum, Silene maritima and Armeria maritima. 

 Dr. Mason also found it in that country in July, flying chiefly 

 in the afternoon, making short flights, but he points out that 

 at that season there is really 7io darkness. 



The first specimen observed in Scotland appears to have 

 been taken by Kichard Weaver in 1846 ; it was recorded, 

 and named assimilis by Mr. H. Doubleday in 1847. In the 

 same year Mr. H. T. Stainton obtained a specimen, sitting 

 on a rock, in the Isle of Arran. Apparently a few more were 

 obtained by Weaver in subsequent years, and in 1869 three 

 were taken in Inverness-shire by Mr. Nicholas Cooke ; one 

 at Strathglass in the same year, three more in 1871 and one 

 in 1874. Doubtless others, unrecorded, were taken, and Dr. 

 Buchanan White noticed it in Glen Tilt. 



The first captures in Shetland were by Mr. McArthur, and 

 appear to have been made in 1883, and although scarce, it 

 was taken in decidedly larger numbers than appears ever to 

 have been the case on the mainland ; indeed there is reason 



