L YC^NID/E. 93 



Pupa liairy, plump, blunt, and rounded at both ends ; 

 convex on the back ; tip of abdomen bent under. Whitish- 

 grey, minutely dotted with black, having a black dorsal 

 stripe and subdorsal dashes. Entirely unattached, and closely 

 resembling a stony particle on the chalky soil. (Hellius 

 and Buckler.) 



The habit of the larva of this species —of feeding up 

 rapidly and remaining unchanged for nine or ten months — 

 accords closely with that of many seed-feeding Tort rices. 



On the Continent it is considered to be double-brooded, and 

 it has been so recorded in tliis country, but evidence appears 

 to be wanting. Yet it is far from improbable that, on some 

 of the very warm chalky hillsides of the South Coast, speci- 

 mens of a second generation may occasionally appear in 

 August. Antlajl/is, where bitten down by sheep, throws up 

 fresh shoots and blossoms late, so that food for a late brood of 

 larvae may not be wanting. 



Extremely local, loving warm hollows and sunny sheltered 

 spots, such as old chalk pits and limestone quarries, occurring 

 year after year, commonly, in exactly the same spot of a few 

 yards in extent, though perhaps hardly to be found for miles 

 around. On the warm slopes of the chalk hills of the 

 Southei'n counties, however, it is very generally distributed, 

 though even here it will resort to any slight ditch, or hollow 

 full of flowers, to the exclusion of the surrounding more 

 open ground. Very scarce in the Eastern counties ; widely 

 distributed but local in the Midland and Western, even to 

 Devon, and in Wales, where chalk or limestone is found ; 

 also in extremely restricted localities in Yorkshire, Lancashire, 

 Cumberland, and Durham, and in various places in Scotland, 

 extending as far north as Aberdeen. In Ireland, it is much 

 more plentiful, especially on the limestone of the west and on 

 the coast hills near Belfast, and even frequents the sandhills 

 of the Dublin coast. 



Widely distributed in Europe and Asia. 



