THE POPLAR KITTEN. 59 



widening on the thirteenth, where it again narrows to the ten- 

 tacles ; in the broad portion of this dorsal marking are faint 

 indications of two or three orange spots ; on each side it is 

 broadly edged with pale yellow, and on the sixth, seventh, and 

 eighth segments its margin is deeply indented. It feeds on 

 alder and birch in July and August. 



The cocoon is shown in its natural position on birch bark 

 (Fig. 19). This was kindly lent to me for figuring by Mr. L. W. 

 Newman, of Bexley, who also had another in which lichen as 

 well as fragments of bark were worked into the surface, so that 

 the cocoon was less in evidence than the one portra)-ed. 



The moth emerges in May and June. 



The first British specimen, a male, was found on alder near 

 Preston, and was recorded by Doubleday in the Zoologist for 

 1847. A second example was noted from the same. locality in 

 1849. This district in Lancashire, and Tilgate Forest in Sussex, 

 are the chief homes in the north and the south of England respec- 

 tively ; but one or more specimens have occurred in Cheshire, 

 Herefordshire, Oxfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Devonshire 

 and more frequently in Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire' 

 It does not seem to inhabit Scotland or Ireland, neither has it 

 been recorded from Wales, so far as I can find, more than once. 



The species is found in Germany, Switzerland, Eastern 

 France, Belgium, Southern Sweden, Central Russia, Livonia, 

 Finland, Ussuri, and a local race occurs in Amurland. 



The Poplar Kitten [Centra bifida). 



Fore wings grey, with a broad, dark grey central band, and a 

 cloud of the same colour towards the tips of the wings ; the 

 band is inwardly margined by an almost straight black line, and 

 outwardly by a curved line ; the third line is double, and curved 

 towards the costa, forming the inner edge of the grey cloud, 

 the lower part is wavy. The first black line is inwardly, and 



