LITHOSlDyE. 231 



years the numbers are far less, and in some it is hardly 

 seen. Before and after flight it sits about the trees and 

 on the ferns and bushes under them, confining itself mainly 

 to woods. There must also be a night flight, since the insect 

 has been found to come to sugar, but, from the blackness of the 

 moths, and their flight being around trees, this is little noticed. 

 Probably common, in its favourite years, in almost all the 

 woods in the South of England as far north as Hereford- 

 shire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk, but this happens rarely, 

 and as a rule it is not abundant except in a few very favoured 

 spots in the southern coast counties. In Cheshire, Yorkshire, 

 and Cumberland it is scarce and extremely local. Apparently 

 more widely distributed in Scotland. Twenty years ago Sir 

 Thomas Moncrieff took it not uncommonly at Moncrieff Hill, 

 Perth, but from that time it seems to have disappeared 

 there ; said to occur at Thornhill, Dumfriesshire ; at Invermay, 

 Balthayock, Fyvie, and elsewhere in the Solway, Argyle, and 

 Dee districts. In Ireland it was taken formerly in the 

 Dublin district by the Rev. J. Bristowe, and has been 

 found at St. Clerans, Galway, by the Hon. Miss Lawless ; 

 one specimen has been obtained at Castletown, Cork, but 

 the species does not appear to be very generally distributed 

 in Ireland. Abroad it is found throughout Central Europe 

 and the temperate portions of Northern Europe ; in Sicily, 

 Dalmatia, Siberia, Tartary, and Asia Minor. I know of no 

 species nearly allied to this in any part of the world. 



Genus 5. CENISTIS. 



Fore wings long and rather nari-ow, slightly contracted 

 beyond the middle ; hind wings ample ; thorax and abdomen 

 of moderate breadth. 



This genus, consisting of but one species in Europe, is 

 closely allied with the preceding and sometimes included in 

 it. The male has the button of scales on the underside of 

 the base of the fore wings. 



