102 LEPIDOPTERA. 



in size througliout the larval existence. It eats nothing 

 apparently, except its egg-shell, until after the first change 

 of skin, when the cast skin is devoured. After this it feeds 

 steadily on the leaves and is said to eat every morsel, even to 

 the leaf-stalk, before going to another leaf. It has also been 

 seen to drink drops of water sprinkled on its food. 



July to September on beech, or more rarely on birch, oak, 

 hazle, hawthorn, apple, and wild rose ; abroad also on alder, 

 lime, and fruit trees generally. So far as I am aware no 

 second generation of the larva has been observed to feed up 

 in this country, and there is reason to believe that the off- 

 spring of the second emergence of moths, if any, perish 

 miserably from cold, or hunger, or both. This doubtless has 

 helped to restrict the numbers of this species, which does not 

 appear to be very subject to the attacks of Ichneumon 

 parasites. 



Pupa of ordinary shape, rounded, rather broad, abdominal 

 segments almost as stout as the thorax, anal extremity very 

 blunt ; brown-black with a purplish bloom. In a thin but 

 very tough cocoon of brown silk between two dead leaves 

 upon the ground, Apparently never upon the tree. In this 

 condition through the winter, during which season the pupse 

 must be greatly reduced in number by mice and other foes. 



The moth flies only at night, usually from about 11 p.m., 

 and after that hour the males may readily be assembled, in 

 its restricted haunts, by means of a freshly reared female. It 

 will also come to a strong light. In the daytime it sits on 

 the trunks of trees, more especially small ones. Mr. W. 

 Holland says in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine^ 

 " They decidedly make a selection of the smaller trees and 

 saplings to sit upon. It is unusual to find them — the males 

 in particular — on anything larger than a small scafFold-pole, 

 and the more favourite tree is from the size of a hop-pole to 

 that of a walking-stick. The small tree need not be a beech, 

 a young ash, thorn, nut-bush, dead stick, in fact anything 



