333 LEPIDOPTERA. 



The male moth is exceedingly active and lively, flying all 

 through the day when the sun shines, but settling suddenly 

 upon a tree or bush when it is obscured. When it alights its 

 wings are shut obliquel}'^ down and its long tufted legs project 

 forward, so that it looks like a bit of brown leaf. Its activity 

 is extreme, and from its undulating, bounding tlight it has 

 received the common name of the '' Vapourer." It has been 

 seen flying round a vessel at sea, twenty miles from land. The 

 female is quiescent, never leaving the surface of the cocoon 

 from which she has emerged, during life. 



An abundant species in most parts of the country, but 

 more especially in London, in almost all parts of which the 

 males may be seen dancing about the streets, squares, and 

 gardens in the sunshine. Sometimes it becomes so abundant 

 as to be destructive, and the trees in the parks and gardens 

 are occasionally almost stripped of leaves by its larvae. In one 

 year recently — about 188G— the few hawthorn bushes which 

 manage to exist in one corner of the quadrangle at Somerset 

 House, Strand, were completely denuded of leaves, and the 

 larvo3 crawled about the walls and footpaths in every direction. 

 How the apterous females reached these secluded trees is a 

 problem difficult to solve. In 1890 the larva3 were in such 

 multitudes at Norwich that in some of the gardens all the 

 leaves of every kind of plant were devoured, and the creatures 

 crowded into the very houses. As a general rule, however, 

 the numbers are insufficient to cause serious injury, and the 

 species does not appear to be regarded as injurious on the 

 Continent. It probably occurs in every county in England 

 and Wales, and in many is abundant, but in the north is 

 more plentiful near the coast than inland. In Scotland it 

 is abundant in many districts, extending as far north as 

 Sutherlandshire. In Ireland much less common, though 

 generally distributed. It is found nearly all over the Con- 

 tinent of Europe, as well as in North Africa and Armenia ; 

 also in North America, specimensf received from Hudson's Bay 

 territory and Nova Scotia, though called norti, being accurately 

 the same species. 



