IJTHOSID.^. 209 



Very widely distributed on heaths and especially in 

 open woods, hiding in the bushes during the day, but 

 easily beaten out and induced to fly a short distance. On 

 hot days it flies naturally soon after sunset and before dusk, 

 flitting round a favourite spot, with an undulating motion, 

 about a yard from the ground ; but in the evening it becomes 

 more active. Formerly abundant in the fens of Wicken, 

 Yaxley, and Burwell in Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, 

 also at Swaffham Prior, but now said to be extinct in those 

 localities. Moderately common in the woods of all the 

 Southern Counties as far west as Devon ; also found in some 

 parts of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire ; widely distributed 

 in Norfolk ; scarce in Suffolk and also in Pembrokeshire and 

 North Wales ; found on the mosses of Lancashire and Cheshire, 

 and very locally in Yorkshire aud Cumberland; rather common 

 on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, and probably not entirely 

 absent from suitable localities in many other counties. In 

 Scotland it 1-as been found in Aberdeenshire, in Clydesdale, 

 and other places in the Clyde, Solway, and Moray districts. 

 Abroad it is common in all the temperate portions of Northern 

 Europe as well as in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe ; 

 in Bithynia, Siberia, and many parts of Northern and 

 Western Asia. 



Genus 4. LITHOSIA. 



Antennae threadlike; thorax and abdomen moderately 

 slender ; fore wings very narrow and strap-like ; hind wings 

 broad, repeatedly folded, and, with the fore wings, pressed 

 closely round the body. A small tuft of raised scales exists 

 under the base of the fore wings in most of the species. 



Larv^ veiy hairy, feeding mainly upon lichens. 



A table of the species may be useful : 



A. Fore wings narrow. 



B. Fore wings grey, spotted. L. micscerda. 

 VOL. II. 



