I20 LEPIDOPTERA. 



Other and very various food plants — Polygala vulgaris, 

 Fimpinella saxifraga, Veronica officinalis, Genista tinctoria, 

 Trifolium, and even grasses — are recorded by various 

 authors, but as the larvce described by them are not always 

 found to agree very closely, it is probable that, in some cases, 

 there have been errors. 



Pupa rather short and thick, with head, wing-sheaths, leg- 

 sheaths, and back black-brown ; abdominal segments 

 yellowish. In a short truncate cocoon, of a glistening 

 brownish-yellow or dirty-white colour ; attached to a rock, 

 stone, or some other object on the ground. 



The moth flies actively, with a direct buzzing motion, in 

 the sunshine, through the earlier part of the day, frequenting 

 flowers, but from four o'clock p.m. it becomes quiet, and may 

 readily be fouud asleep on flowers and plants. It frequents 

 rocky limestone pastures and hill-sides, and where it occurs 

 is usually abundant. 



It appears to have been first taken in these Islands in 

 1853, when it was fouud in plenty in limestone pastures in 

 the county Galway, in the West of Ireland, principally near 

 the coast. From the neighbourhood of Ardrahan, Kilcolgan, 

 Oranmore, and other places in that county, multitudes were 

 procured then and since, and no diminution seems to occur in 

 its abundance. More recently it has been found commonly on 

 the BuiTen Mountains in Clare, and on the coast of that 

 county in thousands. In Scotland, it has been taken com- 

 monly in the neighbourhood of Loch Etive, Argyleshire, as 

 well as on the coast of Forfarshire ; and in Wales near 

 Abersoch, on the shores of Cardigan Bay, where it was 

 abundant in 1887 and 1889. No locality is known for it in 

 England. Abroad it is plentiful in Switzerland, Germany, 

 France, Sweden, Livonia, Siberia, Armenia, and Asia 

 Minor, and in mountainous districts varies in a perplexing 

 manner. 



