2o8 LEPIDOPTERA. 



of the grass or among moss. In confinement will burrow 

 into tliick moss, if provided, and make a little hollow by turn- 

 ing itself round ; pupating at the end of June. 



A very pretty species, rather white in appearance on the 

 wing, the dark portions being inconspicuous. Local and some- 

 what gregarious in its habits, frequenting rough fields and 

 the outsides of woods in chalk districts, sometimes scattered 

 over the country, but generally having a metropolis in some 

 favourite field, where it is to be found in multitudes, while 

 only casual specimens occur outside. Here, although flitting 

 about in a sufficiently active manner, it may be captured 

 with great ease. But apparently specimens at times rove 

 away, and are found at a distance of many miles from the 

 head-quarters, and then are very active and business-like in 

 flight. In its most favoured haunts it is by no means always 

 abundant, but is subject to great fluctuations in numbers from 

 year to year, while from many old localities it has totally dis- 

 appeared. This appears to be the case at Needham and 

 Ellingham in Suffolk, where it was found up to 1850 ; at 

 Fenstanton and Rampton, in the Cambridge fen district ; at 

 Lewes, Sussex, where it used to abound, but has hardly been 

 seen for forty years ; and at Stamford Bridge, Beverley, 

 Doncaster, Maltby, Tadcaster, near Scarborough, and in other 

 parts of Yorkshire. In some cases it may be that it has 

 moved to a fresh locality, as must surely have been the case 

 in East Yorkshire, where, after an apparent absence of 

 twenty-five years, it was found — at Sledmere — commonly in 

 1891. This is rendered the more probable from its habit, as 

 already stated, of confining itself to very restricted spots. It 

 is abundant in many parts of Kent, but more local and scarce 

 in Sussex and Surrey, and at Haslemere, in the latter county, 

 actually appeared only singly on two or three occasions. 

 More plentiful at Petersfield, Hants ; in the Isle of Wight, and 

 along the coast ; and abundant on the chalk range which 

 passes through Dorsetshire, as well as at Lyme Regis, and at 

 Seaton, Oolyton, and Bridestowe, in Devon. In North Devon 



