PEPtONEA CRISTANA. 247 



most favoured, and on May 18th I j^laced half-a-dozen larvse m 

 a small cage with foliage of the following : blackthorn, elm, 

 hazel, hornbeam, oak, whitethorn, pear, beech, sallow, and 

 mountain ash. 



On May 21st the contents of the cage were examined, when it 

 was found that pear, oak, beech, and whitethorn had been eaten 

 to a certain extent, that blackthorn was much more eaten than 

 any other foliage ; tbat four of tbe larvae were in folded black- 

 thorn leaves, and two on other foliage, but as this had got some- 

 what mixed up, I tried another method on this day, placing in a 

 small cage foliage of blackthorn about one-third, and of white- 

 thorn about two-thirds, one on one side of the cage and the 

 other opposite to it. I then jolaced seven larvae between them. 



On May 22nd four of these larvas were feeding upon black- 

 thorn and three upon whitethorn. I removed these larvfe and 

 substituted eight others in tbeir place. The next day equal 

 numbers were feeding upon each foliage. On the same day I 

 placed seven larva on equal portions of blackthorn and white- 

 thorn ; twenty-four hours after, there were five on blackthorn and* 

 two on whitethorn. 



I think the result of the above experiments,- coupled with my 

 exj^erience with the ova, and bearing in mind certain of the 

 habits of the imago to be described I'resently, will show pretty 

 conclusively that the favourite food-plant is blackthorn, followed 

 at some distance by whitethorn, and not improbably by crab apple, 

 for this latter tree grows pretty freely in all the habitats in which 

 I have found the moth, and it certainly is very partial to resting 

 amongst its branches. 



Habits of the biAGo. 



A great many lepidopterists have hunted P. cristana with 

 more or less (generally more) ardour, but, so far as I am 

 aware, with the exception of some delightful verses — which 

 I strongly recommend everyone who is not familiar with them 

 to read — by Prof. Image, and to. be found in 'Ent. Eecord,' 

 xix, p. 299, what they have said on the subject of the habits of 

 the imago is either nothing at all, or something which is mis- 

 leading, and therefore worse than nothing. 



Barrett says (' British Lepidoptera,' vol. x, p. 222) : " The 

 moth sits by day in trees and bushes, more particularly in 

 hawthorn when grown as trees, or occasionally in hedges ; some 

 collectors say also in blackthorn ; and the collectors who used 

 forty years ago to find it freely in the (now destroyed) Hainault 

 Forest took it, as I understand, mainly from hornbeam. It is 

 readily beaten out in the day, but flies hastily to the ground or 

 some other hiding place." 



There is a small stratum of correctness in this, but the whole 

 gives one quite a wrong impression ; at any rate it did so to me. 



