178 LEPIDOPTERA. 



and on looking round, observed what I thought was a beetle 

 flying round a sallow bush ; when in my net it again repeated 

 the sound, but what was my surprise at finding that it was a 

 lepidopterous insect. I got it between my finger and thumb, 

 when it again produced the sound, and with the aid of my 

 lantern I found it was the common Halias iwasiiiana. The 

 sound was as if you passed a pin sharply along three or four 

 teeth of a comb. I suppose it was a love-song to charm his 

 lady," No satisfactory explanation of this singular habit, or 

 rather power, seems as yet to have been furnished. Mr. 

 Swinton attributes it to friction between the sub-costal 

 nervure of the hind wing, and a finely-striated callosity upon 

 the thorax. A young collector at Carlisle tells me that when 

 beaten out of a bush it opens the wings on one side only, 

 and as it falls spins rapidly round like a falling leaf. By 

 noticing this curious trick he took a number of specimens in 

 rapid succession. 



This species is common in suitable places almost throughout 

 the South and East of England, though less so in Devonshire 

 and the Western portions of Wales ; also fairly common in 

 Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire, 

 and found, more locally, in Yorkshire and Cumberland. In 

 Scotland it is not uncommon in the Western districts ; also 

 in Perthshire and Ross-shire, Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire, 

 and elsewhere as far north as Moray. In Ireland it was re- 

 corded in the county Wicklow by Mr. E. Birchall, and has been 

 taken near Lough Gilly in the county Armagh. Abroad it is 

 widely distributed, being found in France and Italy ; most 

 parts of Central Europe, and all the temperate portions of 

 Northern Europe ; in Southern Eussia, Siberia, and appa- 

 rently in Eastern Asia ; indeed specimens from Japan, 

 although named Sijlj^ha, agree accurately in both sexes with 

 our own. 



The green colour, in this group, is extremely liable to 

 fade towards yellowish under the influence of damp, and 

 in the present species to be changed to a bright yellow by 

 the fumes of ammonia. 



