TRIP ID ^. 253 



much rounded, especially below the cremaster, which is short, 

 but broad and stout, and furnished with two stout tapering 

 spikes of a black colour ; general surface glossy red-brown. 

 In a loose friable cocoon of earth and silk, underground. In 

 this condition through the winter. 



The moth doubtless hides during the day among herbage, 

 but is very rarely found at rest ; at dusk — sometimes at very 

 early dusk — it flies with great swiftness, coining to blossoms 

 of Silcnc, Dianthus, and Lychnis, but is timid and readily 

 frightened away. It has been taken at flowers of the common 

 garden rocket, and is said, where common, to pay an 

 occasional visit to sugar. But from its rapid flight it so 

 readily becomes worn, that for cabinet specimens rearing 

 from the larva is commonly resorted to. A circumstance 

 which appears to be definitely ascertained with regard to 

 the curious dark varieties found in the Shetland Isles seems 

 to be worthy of special notice : Mr. McArthur, who has 

 collected very extensively in these islands, assures me that 

 the darkest suffused and nearly unicolorous forms are found 

 mainly on the East coasts, more particularly of the Island of 

 Unst, where the rocks among which the food plant grows 

 are of a very dark colour ; while on the West coast, where 

 the rocks are of a paler colour, the forms found are more 

 nearly normal, with intermediate varieties. Also that in 

 the Hebrides along with rocks ornamented with yellow 

 lichens, he has found those varieties of the moth having 

 an orange or olive-yellow tinge. This is the more remark- 

 able in that the moth does not appear there to sit upon 

 the rocks, or to give up its usual habit of hiding in the 

 daytime among herbage. 



A very widely distributed species in these Islands, but 

 hardly ever found commonly, and inland usually scarce. 

 I find records for all the South and East of England, from 

 the Scilly Isles to Norfolk, and also in the West to Here- 

 ford, Cheshire, Lancashire, and Cumberland, but apparently 



