HESPERIDjE. 309 



spot in every English county. In the South of Scotland it 

 becomes commoner as far as the Forth and Clyde districts, 

 and has been found in Ross-shire, and at Strathglass in In- 

 verness-shire. In Ireland it is recorded at Enniskillen, and 

 at Killybegs, Donegal ; and I have seen it in the county 

 Galway ; but there appears to be no record from the south 

 of Ireland. On the Continent of Europe it is everywhere 

 common in dry places except in the extreme north, as well 

 as in Eastern and Western Asia. 



A curious circumstance in connection with this species, 

 which, even more than the extreme dulness of its underside, 

 indicates affinity — or at any rate analogy — to moths, was 

 described many years ago in the Entomologistsi WeeMy Intelli- 

 gencer by Mr. Roland Trimen, then an ardent young collector 

 in this country, but since better known for his entomo- 

 logical work in South Africa, thus : " While collecting just 

 at sunset I saw what I took to be a small Noctua resting 

 on a thick stalk of grass. On stooping to examine it I 

 found to my surprise that it was a specimen of Tagcs appa- 

 rently fast asleep. Its wings were folded so as to form a 

 roof as in most of the Bombyces and Noctua?, with the upper 

 side outwards ; thus further proving the close affinity of the 

 Hesperidfe to the moths. I pinned it just as it was, and 

 after a short flutter it settled down into the same position. 

 I afterwards thought that this might be an exceptional in- 

 stance, and that the Tagcs in question might only have been 

 trying this position to see whether it was a comfortable one to 

 repose in ; but three days later in the same challqoit, during 

 a slight shower of rain, I found another in a precisely 

 similar position, and so am induced to believe that it must 

 be a regular practice." ]\Iore recently the same curious 

 habit was noticed, in the Entomologist, by Jlr. F. W. Frohawk. 

 " On the evening of June 12th, when searching for butterflies 

 asleep on the heads of grasses, I noticed one grass head 

 which seemed rather weighty, with what I at first took to 



