1 1 6 LEPIDOP TERA . 



back becomes whitish, the dorsal line claret, the subdorsal 

 deep purple, with following whitish and claret lines and 

 brownish spiracles. After hybernation the adult colour is 

 soon assumed. 



July to May on Helianthcmum vulgar c (Rock-rose or 

 Common Sun-cistus) ; when very young making a hole into 

 the substance of a leaf and eating out the parenchyma, but it 

 seems never to completely enter the leaf which it is mining. 

 When older it eats away the lower surface, leaving patches 

 of clear skin-like blisters. When full grown it eats the 

 whole substance of the leaves and the tender shoots, feeding 

 usually in the sunshine. (Hellins.) 



Pupa fusiform, with small head-covering and plump 

 abdomen ; wing-cases long and free at their edges ; tongue- 

 case and leg-<jases long, free at the tips and extending 

 beyond the wing-cases ; abdominal segments with a trans- 

 verse row of small points ; anal segment rounded. Head 

 and wing-cases deep shining olive-brown, abdomen more 

 bronzy. In a small, tough, slightly fusiform, silken cocoon 

 low down among the stems of the food plant. (Hellins.) 



Very similar to P. statices, but smaller and darker, with 

 shorter wings, and the sexes are much more equal in size. 

 Far more sluggish than either of its allies, and has the 

 habit of feigning death when alarmed. The males fly 

 rather briskly sometimes, for very short distances, in hot 

 sunshine, but they keep pretty near to the patch of Hclian- 

 themum, from which the more sluggish females hardly stir. 

 Mr. J. J. Weir says that all the three species of this 

 genus may be found within the space of a mile upon the 

 Cliff Hill at Lewes, occupying their respective and re- 

 stricted spots in abundance, but scarcely straying away. 

 As a rule, they only move in the sunshine, but there is a 

 record of the capture of the present species at a lamp at 

 midnight. It is confined almost entirely to hills of chalk or 

 limestone, and is by no means to be found wherever its food 



