90 LEPIDOPTERA. 



in the oak bark, through the thin covering of which it partly 

 forces itself before the emergence of the moth. 



The moth emerges in the morning, and is fond of sunning 

 itself upon oak trunks. It is said to fly mostly from 1 a.m. 

 to noon, and has been found on flowers of the nettle. It 

 has long been known as a denizen of Hyde Park, London, 

 and in some years, as in 1856 and 18G7, has been very com- 

 mon there ; indeed the vast majority of the specimens in 

 British collections have been obtained from this favoured and 

 readily accessible spot. Elsewhere it appears to frequent 

 woods, or the scattered trees in open parks, and has been 

 found in Kent, Sussex, Devonshire (near both Plymouth and 

 Exeter), Herefordshire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire, Oxford- 

 shire, Essex, and more rarely in Suffolk, Gloucestershire, 

 Somerset, and near Doncaster, Yorks. But it is, like its 

 congeners, readily overlooked, and doubtless may be found, 

 where oak is plentiful, in some part of most of the more 

 southern English counties. 



Abroad it ranges through Central and Southern Europe 

 and Asia Minor. 



7. S. my op sef or mis, Borl;. Expanse, f to 1 inch. 

 Wings transparent, tips purplish black, belt of abdomen red. 



Antennae rather long, serrated, black ; head, thorax, and 

 legs blue-black ; abdomen long and slender in the male, 

 stouter in the female, black, with a broad central vermilion 

 belt ; anal tuft long and dense, blue-black. Wings trans- 

 parent, with black nervures ; fore wings with a black stripe 

 along the costal margin, a narrow black line along the dorsal 

 margin, hind margin broadly black with a faint coppery or 

 purplish tinge, and the cross-bai-, or transverse spot, black. 

 Hind wings with the hind margin rather broadly black 

 with a coppery tinge, and having, near the costa, an oblique 

 black centi-al streak. Cilia all smoky-black. 



Under side of the wings having all the transparent mem- 

 branes of a bi-illiant iridescent blue, the margins brilliant 



