THE ENTOMOLOOIST.-^ ' 



Vol. L.] OCTOBER, 1917. [No. 653 



PERONEA CRISTANA : ITS LIFE-HISTOEY, HABITS 

 OF THE IMAGO, DISTEIBUTION OF THE VAEIOUS 

 NAMED FOEMS, AND SOME SPECULATIONS ON 

 THE PEESENT TEEND OF ITS VAEIATION. 



By W. G. Sheldon, F.E.S. 



A GOOD deal has been written in the past century about this 

 most fascinating moth, but the various writers seem to have 

 restricted themselves almost entirely to the task of giving names 

 to its different forms ; its life-history, which many Lepidopterists 

 have attempted to solve, remaining almost. entirely unknown. 

 The published accounts of the habits and habitats of the imago 

 are almost invariably misleading, and it does not seem to have 

 occurred to anyone that some knowledge of the forms to be 

 found in the various localities that produce the species would be 

 of interest to students of Peronea cristana. The present paper 

 is an attempt to throw some light on these various points. 



Life-history. 



The late J. A. Clark, in his Memoir on P. cristana (' Ent. 

 Eecord,' xiii, p. 227), dealing with this point, writes : " Little 

 indeed, seems to be known of its life-history. Like myself, 

 many have bred odd examples of the species, the larvae having 

 been obtained by general beating and without actual knowledge 

 of the species, until after pupation had taken place and the 

 imagines had emerged. My recollection of the larvas is that 

 they have been brownish-green in colour, and I believe that they 

 feed upon the lichen growing upon whitethorn ; but the authori- 

 ties, such as they are, appear to be against me. Wilkinson 

 notes (' British Tortrices,' p. 174) : ' The larva is unknown, 

 though the insect has in one or two instances been bred pro- 

 miscuously from whitethorn,' an experience very similar to 

 mine. Meyrick states (' Handbook,' etc., p. 521) : * The larva 

 on rose and hawthorn, June and July.' Merrin says (' Calendar,' 

 p. 115) : ' Dwarf sallows and hawthorn between united leaves.' 

 Sorhagen says (' Die Kleinschmett.,' etc., p. 64) : * Die Eaupe 

 6-7 [June and July] in den Herzblattern von Primus spinosa, 

 Salix caprea, Ulmus, Carpinus, dringt auch in die stengel- 

 spitzen.' One is rather astonished at Sorhagen's list of food- 

 plants, and would be inclined to suggest, were it not for the 



ENTOM. — OCTOBER, 1917. T 



