40 LEPIDOPTERA. 



the moth emerges iu September. In confinement most 

 difficult to rear at the proper season, as pupae kept through 

 the winter almost invariably die, and the plan found most 

 successful is that of forcing them out, in the late autumn or 

 early winter, by moist heat. 



This species is hardly to be considered more than a casual 

 and fitful inhabitant of these islands. The first reliable 

 record seems to be that by Mr. W. Raddon, who obtained 

 larva3 in the year 1806 on the coast opposite Instow, North 

 Devon. In this district, lying along the right-hand coast of 

 the arm of the sea which receives the Taw and the Torridge, 

 is an extensive range of sandhills extending from near 

 Barnstaple to within a few miles of Ilfracombe. Upon these 

 sandhills, known as Braunton Burrows, the larvae were found 

 in abundance, upon Eupliorlia paralias, by Mr. Raddon, the 

 greatest plenty being reached in the year 1814. The vast 

 majority appear to have died in the larva or pupa state, and 

 comparatively few were reared. These few form the majority 

 of the British specimens now in collections. From some 

 unascertained cause the species seems to have disappeared 

 from North Devon after 1814. This cannot have arisen from 

 over-collecting, since Mr. Raddon distinctly stated that the 

 larvae were so plentiful that he took only those which were 

 lull grown^ excejit in one instance, when gathering an armful 

 of the plant, at dusk, for food for his larvfe, he found after- 

 wards that he had inadvertently also taken moi'e than a hwidred 

 young larv£e ! 



The Rev. E. N. Bloomfield has seen a specimen, and the 

 skin of its pupa, which was reared, many years ago, from a 

 larva found on Eupliorlia at Landguard, Suffolk. The plant 

 was known to grow on that coast formerly, though it has 

 now become extinct. 



In September 1889 thirteen larvae were found by a young 

 collector upon Uiqjhorhia on the north coast of Cornwall. Of 

 these, four died in the larva or pupa state, eight were reared in 

 1890, emerging from May 9th to July ^4th, and the remaining 



