110 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



It is only necessary to walk through the sad and funereal-looking 

 grove, with a stout stick with which to tap the trees as one 

 passes, and off fly the indigata. If larvae are wanted, and it is 

 worth breeding for it is at best but a shabby-looking species, 

 they may be beaten from fir during July, when they are full-fed. 

 Perhaps larch grows near the firs, when we may expect 

 E. lariciata. They also rest on the trunks of the larches in the 

 daytime, but prefer the lower branches. A large spreading tree 

 of this kind will often produce a good series if worked carefully, 

 but the moths require watching, for they possess the habit of 

 dropping straight to the ground, and remaining motionless. 

 I have taken E. lariciata from the North of Scotland to the 

 South of England. 



By the sides of the woods, when the sallow-catkins are just 

 ready to fall, is the time and place to take the larvae of 

 E. tenuiata, which, like several others of the genus, is more 

 easily collected in the larval than the perfect state. It is only 

 necessary to choose a dry day, and beat the catkins on to a sheet 

 or into an umbrella, and keep them in a large flower-pot 

 with a little earth at the bottom, or other place where they will 

 be dry and unlikely to mould. It is useless to look for each 

 larva of E. tenuiata separately ; but the moths will come out in 

 June, sometimes in surprising numbers, where not a single 

 larva was observed. The moths have been taken in Yorkshire, 

 the fen-lands, and many other localities. Even if not known to 

 occur in a particular locality it is worth while gathering the 

 catkins, for one is sure to breed something from them. The 

 reverse may be said of E. pumitata, for it is much more 

 commonly taken as an imago than in the larval state. In 

 April and late into summer, as there are probably a succession 

 of broods, it may be found all over the three kingdoms at rest 

 on palings, trunks of trees, &c., especially about cultivated 

 lands ; though in Scotland it occurs freely even on the 

 highest and bleakest moors. It flies during the afternoon 

 sunshine, as well as at dusk of evening. The larvge feed upon the 

 flower-heads of many compositse, but singly, and not semi- 

 gregariously, as is the case with some other species of the genus. 

 The habits of E. satyrata are much the same as E. pwnilata, 

 frequenting palings and tree-trunks in the south, but flying freely 

 in the afternoons on the northern moors. This species varies so 



