170 LEPIDOPTERA 



Lakva. Head rounded, shining whitish-green, mouth and 

 a few dots surrounding it dark brown ; body cylindrical, 

 rather enlarged behind ; sides puckered ; colour greenish- 

 yellow or yellowish-green ; dorsal line indicated by a grey 

 spot at each incision ; subdorsal lines represented by double 

 oblique reddish dashes, most conspicuous on the middle 

 segments ; spiracular line very faint, whitish or yellowish ; 

 spiracles white, edged with black ; legs and prolegs tipped 

 with reddish. (C. Fenn.) 



Variable ; Buckler figures one with rows of brown spots 

 across the front of each segment of the yellow-green body ; 

 another of a bright red-brown with a yellowish subspiracular 

 stripe and undersurface. 



July to September on birch, oak, hazel, sweet gale, fern 

 (Ptcris aquilina^ dock, knotgrass, and doubtless other low 

 growing plants. Feeding at night and usually hiding on or 

 near the ground in the daytime. A very active larva. 



Pupa elongate, rounded, dark purplish-red, anal extremity 

 dilated and furnished with two short bristles. Subterranean, 

 in a very fragile and brittle silken cocoon. (C. Fenn.) In 

 this state through the winter. 



The moth may occasionally be found sitting on palings, or 

 the trunks of trees, in the daytime, though doubtless the 

 majority of specimens hide among dead leaves and herbage. 

 At dusk it comes readily to sugar. Apparently confined 

 almost entirely to woods and wooded heaths, and found in 

 such situations, though not very commonly, in most of the 

 Southern and Eastern Counties of England. Apparently 

 much more rare in Dorset, Devon, and Gloucestershire, and 

 also in the Fen districts ; indeed, I know of no record of it in 

 Norfolk or Lincolnshire. In the more wooded districts of 

 the Midlands, as Northamptonshire, Cannock Chase, Staf- 

 fordshire, and Sherwood Forest, Notts, it is more frequent ; 

 even common in some seasons. Less common in Worcester- 

 shire and Herefordshire, extremely rare in Cheshire and 



