I04 LEPIDOPTERA. 



similitude was so early noticed that Mouffet wrote more than 

 two centuries and a half ago that the ^^ Btaplifylinus caterpillar " 

 was common in Norfolk, When irritated it has the power of 

 ejecting an acid secretion from the gland under its head, 

 causing much inconvenience to the eye of the too-close 

 observer. 



Most frequent in beech woods in chalk districts, more 

 rarely found in open mixed woods, but almost confined to 

 chalky or sandy localities. Certainly not noin common in 

 Norfolk, though early in the present century Curtis used to 

 take it in the Cathedral Close at Norwich. Still found 

 occasionally in the county and in Suffolk, and much more 

 frequently in Essex, especially the Epping Forest district. 

 In various localities in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Wilts, Dorset, 

 and even Devon and Cornwall. Not very scarce in the New 

 Forest, Hants, and in some years comparatively common in 

 the chalk districts of Berks, Bucks and Oxfordshire. Rare 

 in Cambridgeshire, the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, 

 Somerset, Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Herefordshire, 

 Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, in Wyre Forest on the 

 borders of Worcestershire and Salop, and in Wales in the 

 Swansea district. I have no record from further north in 

 these islands, except that of a single specimen at Selby, 

 Yorkshire, in 1864. Mr, Kane showed me a very pale 

 specimen which I understood that he had taken in Ireland 

 in 1892 ; it is since stated by him that it was captured near 

 Kenmare by Miss Vernon, and that one or two more speci- 

 mens have been found in Ireland, 



Abroad it is widely distributed through Central Europe, and 

 in Spain, Piedmont, Corsica, Livonia, Southern Sweden, and 

 over extensive regions of Western and Southern Asia, 

 Specimens from Japan have received the name oi 2^crsimilis ; 

 and those from Ceylon. India, and Burmah, that of 

 altcrnans. 



