40 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Brighton, and Taunton. Three moths were recorded in 1858 ; 

 and in 1859 caterpillars were plentiful on the south-east coast, 

 common on the Cheshire coast, also reported from Devon, 

 Cambs., London, and Darlington ; over a score were found 

 within a short distance of Perth. A good many moths were 

 also taken. The species was especially abundant in 1870, in 

 which year caterpillars were collected in hundreds. It seems 

 to have been widely distributed throughout England, and was 

 again found in Perthshire. Perhaps not more than three 

 specimens were taken between 1872 and 1888, but in the rainy 

 and cold summer of the latter year, the moths seem to have 

 invaded the country in great force, and were reported from many 

 parts of England, and also from Aberdeen in Scotland, and 

 from Howth in Ireland. Caterpillars, too, were plentiful on the 

 coast sandhills of Kent, Cheshire, and Lancashire, and also in 

 the Eastern Counties. 



In March, 1889, Mr. Elisha had moths emerge from 

 chrysalids of the previous year. These had been placed in a 

 temperature ranging from 60 to 70 degrees, and the moths 

 came out in from fourteen to sixteen days after commencing the 

 forcing process. Some half a dozen chrysalids that I had in 

 1888, from Lancashire caterpillars, were allowed to remain in 

 the earth, which was contained in a large-sized flower-pot ; the 

 moths emerged in May and June, 1889, all but one being 

 perfect specimens. 



In 1894 Mr. Harvvood obtained five caterpillars on the Essex 

 coast, and in 1897 the Rev. A. Miles Moss found a few, and 

 observed traces of others, on the Lancashire coast, but, apart 

 from these records, very few moths or caterpillars of this species 

 appear to have been noted in the country since 1888, and we 

 still await the advent of another Galii year. So far the periods 

 of scarcity between the seasons of plenty have been twenty-five, 

 eleven, and nineteen years. 



The range of this insect extends through Europe and Asia to 



