NO TODONTID^. 8 1 



at once on a gas lamp and folding its wings down as closely 

 together as a shut book, remaining in the same position for 

 hours. In the daytime it sits in a similar position, or with 

 the wings hardly so closely drawn together, upon a leaf, and 

 bears a wonderful resemblance to a morsel of the excrement 

 of a bird. Generally distributed throughout England and 

 Wales, and plentiful in the more Southern diofcricts, rare in 

 the extreme west of Wales. Apparently confined to the south 

 of Scotland, since I have no records beyond Roxburghshire, 

 Clydesdale, and the Forth district. In Ireland it is found 

 near Dublin, in Wicklow, Westmeath, Galway, King's County, 

 Armagh and Tyrone, but not commonly, in some of these 

 districts even rarely. Abroad in many parts of Central 

 Europe, in the South of France, Spain, Italy, Corsica, 

 Sardinia, Dalmatia, Greece, Southern Russia, various parts 

 of Asia Minor, the hill districts of India, and in North 

 America. 



Family 14. NOTODONTID-ffi. 



Tongue small and slender, not spiral, usually in separate 

 filaments, apparently functionless ; antennae usually less than 

 one half the length of the fore wings, pectinated in the male, 

 either more shortly so, or simple, in the female ; thorax stout, 

 covered with loosely raised scales ; abdomen moderately stout, 

 blunt, tufted in the male. Fore wings rather long and narrow, 

 or somewhat long-ovate, in very many species having a 

 projecting tuft of scales on the dorsal margin ; hind wings 

 rather short and not very ample. 



Larv^ naked, or in a few instances downy ; most variable 

 in form, sometimes extremely grotesque ; having either sixteen 

 or fourteen legs ; hinder portion usually, and the head in 

 many cases, raised during repose. Feeding on leaves of trees 

 or shrubs. 



Pup^ of ordinary moth shape, in a hard cocoon on bark ; or 



VOL. III. F 



