250 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



In the heart of the thickets, especially under the larger trees, 

 are often thin straggling bushes, and, if the weather is settled, 

 cristana %Yill often rest upon them in preference to the thicker 

 growth around. If in this position, a slight upward tap will 

 usually dislodge it. 



When in the net the instinct seems to be to burrow downwards, 

 instead of making for the mouth, as is the almost invariable 

 custom with lepidoptera. The attempts to find a way out of the 

 bottom of the net are most pertinacious, and give the insect the 

 appearance of frantically executing a dance on its head. 



So secretive.in the daytime is P. cristana that I have never seen 

 one fly unless it was first disturbed, and a professional collector 

 who must have captured many thousands of examples informs me 

 that his experience in this respect is identical with my own. 



If the day is cold, or if there is much wind, especially cold 

 wind, one had better give cristana a rest, for on these occasions 

 she will, on being disturbed, drop to the ground and will not be 

 seen. The best days are those which are calm and warm, and 

 especially when there have been several of such days in succession. 

 I understand that after a warm shower of rain the moth will fly 

 freely when dislodged. The afternoon is Ijetter than the morning. 

 The imagines are to be found from mid-August to well on into 

 November. In fine settled weather, especially in the eariier 

 part of its period, the moths will get up to the top of the 

 thickets ; if there is a cold snap, say a sharp frost in October, 

 they will go down amongst the dead wood, and it will usually take 

 several days of better weather before they will be up again. 



Late in the year, that is to say during the second half of 

 October and throughout November, I understand that the moths 

 keep low, and in the thickest parts of their haunts, no doubt 

 hibernation takes place amongst the accumulations of dead wood 

 which are so abundant underneath the thickets- 



In the spring it is very unusual to meet with the moths, 

 though they are occasionally seen, and I am informed one or two 

 examples have been found on the flowers of blackthorn when 

 these were searched at night for imagines of Aleucis im-taria. I 

 learn also that some years ago whilst certain thickets in the 

 New Forest were being cleared away in the early spring, quite a 

 number of P. cristana were disturbed out of the dead wood in 

 their recesses. 



Specimens captured in November are usually in perfect con- 

 dition, and this would lead one to suppose that the moths had a 

 continuous period of emergence, extending over several months ; 

 my eighty specimens, however, emerged in a period of twenty 

 days, and it would seem, therefore, that intense sluggishness 

 is the cause of the absence of wasted specimens throughout 

 the autumn. 



(To be continued.) 



