ARCTTTD^ 285 



in ferneries and greenhouses ; also eating the leaves of shrubs, 

 bushes, and even young trees, and a whole brood has been 

 found feeding upon the leaves of the fig-tree, which in this 

 country seems to be attacked by no other lepidopterous insect. 



Pupa stout, stumpy, with rounded abdomen, tail blunt, but 

 with several very short bristles ; shining dark red-brown. In 

 a closely-fitting cocoon of silk mixed with the larval hairs ; 

 among rubbish or under any slight shelter. Remaining in 

 the pupa state through the winter. 



A sluggish insect in the daytime, sitting about on walls 

 and among plants, flying soon after dusk and through the 

 night, readily attracted by any light. 



Extremely plentiful in the south of England, including the 

 metropolis, and common throughout the country to the north- 

 west of Scotland, though scarce or absent in the north-east 

 of that country. Also common throughout reland. Abroad 

 it ranges over all the temperate portions of Northern Europe 

 Central Europe, Southern Russia, Tartary, and Siberia. 

 Probably, taking new climatal variations, its range is still 

 wider. A form known as H. tigrina from Southern India is 

 of the same shape, proportions, and colour, but its markings, 

 as is the case with the var. radiata, have taken a different 

 range, being altered into irregular spots, blotches and longitu- 

 dinal stripes on the fore wings, and with the hind wino-s 

 much spotted and clouded, the markings being quite indefi- 

 nite. Another called Dalbergi, also from India, has the shape 

 and pattern of markings quite normal but colour heightened 

 by being tinged with reddish, the abdomen sometimes yellow 

 sometimes crimson, and the tarsi crimson. This leads to 

 very similar forms, known as punctata, and seriatopundata, 

 from Java, none of which seem to furnish satisfactory 

 points of distinction. 



The variety zatima or radiata appears to be confined, besides 

 England, to Holland and the Island of Heligoland, in which 

 last locality it is said to be common. 



