330 LEPIDOPTERA. 



dark smoky-brown ; leg-tufts smoky-black ; legs black, much 

 barred with yellow. 



Apparently not variable. 



Stated to be on the wing in March and April, but the one 

 British specimen of which there is a definite record was 

 taken in July. Possibly it may be double-brooded. 



Larva brown-grey ; thoracic segments thickened, rather 

 paler; from the fourth segment are oblique pale streaks 

 from the back on the sides ; on the eleventh and tw^elfth 

 segments are two pairs of blunt points ; on the sides two 

 yellowish longitudinal lines, between which are placed the 

 black spiracles ; head black with an orange collar. 



In May on old lichen-covered bushes of blackthorn, w^hich 

 it resembles in colour, usually resting on the twigs or bark 

 in the darker inner portion of the bush ; descending to the 

 earth for pupation. (Prof. G. Hofmann.) 



Pupa undescribed. 



The most definite record of this extremely rare species in 

 these Islands is that by Mr. E. Donovan, author of Natural 

 History of British Insects, 1792 to 1816. He says: "We 

 accidentally met with an individual of this species on the 

 wing about twilight, one summer evening in the month of 

 July 1800, near Fishguard in Pembrokeshire, South Wales. 

 It occurred among a number of other insects of the Nodua 

 and Bomhifx families by the side of low hedges which divide 

 the fields and meadows at a short distance from the town. 

 This is the only specimen we have seen British." Donovan's 

 figure accurately represents this species — a rather small 

 example. Twenty years ago the late Bev. Henry Burney 

 informed me that the specimen was still in existence in the 

 Oxford Museum, and I understand from Professor Poulton 

 that it is still in the Hope Museum there, and is now a rather 

 worn-looking example with broken antennse, but with every 

 indication of genuineness, 



