56 LEPIDOPTERA. 



hundred have been captured by this method in a very few 

 days. The female soon commences to lay her eggs, clinging 

 to a birch twig from below, and probably flying but a short 

 distance, to another suitable twig ; but she is never, I believe, 

 seen on the wing by day. 



An exceedingly local species ; it has been found commonly 

 at Tilgate Forest, Sussex, also at St. Leonard's Forest, and 

 near Petersfield, in the same county ; probably in Surrey, 

 though the one specimen seen was not captured ; in Berkshire, 

 not uncommonly; formerly in several parts of Suffolk, but 

 apparently now extinct in that county ; in Herefordshire, 

 formerly in Worcestershire, and still existing in Wyre 

 Forest. In 1857 a specimen was taken at Monmouth ; it is 

 also found rarely in Devon and Somerset. In Scotland, more 

 plentiful, large numbers having been, in favourable years, 

 obtained in the Rannoch district of Perthshire, and in the 

 Altyre Woods, near Forres, Moray ; and smaller numbers 

 elsewhere in Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire and Argyleshire. 

 The record by Mr. E. Birchall of the larva at Powerscourt, 

 Co. Wicklow, Ireland, was, in all probability, an error ; it 

 has never been confirmed. Abroad this species is found 

 throughout Central and Northern Europe, and in North Italy, 

 but is not generally common. 



Family 12. SATURNIDiE. 



Antennaa pectinated in both sexes, in the male very broadly 

 and oppositely so ; thorax and abdomen very stout, densely 

 covered with long soft scales. Fore wings usually elongated 

 at the apex ; all the wings very broad and ample, usually 

 with ocellated, or diaphanous, spots, or both. 



Larvae with rows of divergent tufts of bristles. 



Pup^ broad and short, in dense, strong, silken cocoons. 



It is to this family that belong most of the large and 



