92 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



a few of the habits of this little Prominent. The eggs are laid in 

 November on the slender twigs of the common maple, mostly 

 singly, or two or three together, often near a bud. They may be 

 found chiefly in hedges, that are open and not shaded by trees, 

 by looking when the sun shines ; and where one is found, others 

 may be expected near. Most are found in March, owing to the 

 weather being brighter then, and some early in April, if the buds 

 are not too much swollen. The eggs do not hatch in nature till 

 early in May. In confinement the eggs must be kept in a very cool 

 place, and will even then hatch about April 17th to 25th, in most 

 cases. The egg is a light umber-brown, with a white base; it 

 looks glazed through a lens. Some are lighter in colour, and 

 still are fertile. If you have not maple or sycamore trained 

 against a south wall, young seedling sycamores may be found at 

 the bottom of hedges in early leaf. The larva will feed well on 

 sycamore and Norway maple, as well as Acer cam'pestre. The 

 young larva is very helpless, and often fails to find its food. 



The larvae may be found about the end of May on the sunny 

 side of maples, but less easily than the eggs. They are full-fed 

 early in June, and bury often two inches deep in sandy mould 

 pressed rather firmly. The pupa, which hangs in its cocoon like 

 a clapper in a bell, should not be disturbed. The larva is quiet 

 and gentle, like the perfect insect, and has nothing cannibal in its 

 nature. Others have praised the genus Eupithecia as pleasant to 

 rear, but give me Ptilopliora pliimigera. I have taken the eggs in 

 Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire on the chalk ; and 

 have known the moth taken in Hampshire, and at Great Malvern 

 in Gloucestershire. 



The time of the insect's appearance is mid-November, in mild 

 foggy weather. The circumstance which first led me to search 

 for the eggs was that about thirty specimens of the moth were 

 brought me from the lamps, by the man who extinguished them 

 about midnight, one November. These were males ; but one 

 female, taken on a foggy night, enabled me to identify the eggs 

 when found afterwards on a twig of maple. 



Plumigera comes out usually in a burst, males and females 

 together, which makes it more easy to secure fertile ova. They 

 pair usually about 7 p.m., and for about an hour. One female 

 can lay about 150 ova, but in confinement half this number is 

 above the average. I have found ova more than twice the usual 



