BOMBYCID^. 49 



adjacent heather were taken fairly plentifully in the winter, 

 and imagines sitting on adjacent palings were occasionally 

 met with. Its range was very restricted ; a square patch on 

 the extreme corner of the chase on the Kugeley side, with a 

 half mile side, being the only place it was found in. In the 

 year 1879, when a school-boy, my father told me of this 

 moth, I having just begun to collect Lepidoptera. Mr. 

 W. A. Bonney, now deceased, told me where they used to 

 get it. I went up one day, and as far as I can recollect 

 found three larvas without much difficulty. I did not realise 

 their value and took little trouble with them, so that they 

 escaped in some way. In 1882 I went up again and found 

 one larva ; my brother found another and we succeeded in 

 rearing one imago from these, which is still in my collection. 

 From this time till 1886 I did next to nothing in collecting, 

 but in that year I went up hoping to find ilicifolia again, 

 when I found that the sacred acres were sacrificed to a fir 

 plantation. A search in the plantation produced nothing, 

 and subsequent searches no better result." From the habit 

 of this species, of remaining in the pupa state through the 

 winter, and with the cocoon so imperfectly concealed, it must 

 be unusually exposed to the attacks of its foes, hence doubt- 

 less its extreme rarity in this country, and hence also the 

 risk that it may have become exterminated in the district 

 which has been so often and so perseveringly searched for it. 

 But suitable localities are numerous, and so extensive in the 

 northern hill districts, that there is still hope of its re- 

 discovery. In the year 1864 a larva, believed to be of this 

 species, was found near Lynton, North Devon, but was not 

 reared. I know of no additional localities here. Abroad it 

 is found in most parts of Central Europe, in Sweden, Finland, 

 Piedmont, and in the Altai district of Siberia. 



(Eutricha pini, L. — This large and handsome species — 

 of a more purple-brown and with a distinct white spot in 

 the fore wings — was formerly supposed to be native to this 



VOL. in. D 



