NO TO DON TIDjE. 1 1 7 



June, July, August, September, on aspen. Abroad reported 

 to feed also on poplar, willow, and birch. 



Pupa shining dark-brown ; in a silken cocoon, in the 

 earth or between leaves. Passing the winter in this 

 condition. 



This is one of our rarest insects. The first recorded 

 capture, of which I am aware, was in 1842 by Mr. J, W. 

 Douglas. He says : " During the Essex excursion I took 

 from an aspen a larva of a greenish-grey colour having three 

 prominences on the back, and which, I thought, was JSf. ziczac, 

 though differing somewhat from the usual appearance of that 

 larva. It formed a slight covering between two leaves in the 

 collecting-box, and appeared in its perfect state on the 10th of 

 August. It has not, I believe, been taken in Britain before." 

 This specimen, a very fine male, is now in the collection of 

 Dr. P. B. Mason at Burton-on-Trent, with another taken by 

 Mr. Garneys in Suffolk, and a third from the collection of 

 the late Mr. Edwin Brown, of which the origin is unknown. 

 The Rev. J. Hellins beat out a larva from an alder near 

 Exeter in August 1870, which he was convinced belonged to 

 this species, but it unfortunately died ; and another recorded 

 by the Rev. J. Greene as beaten out of hazel in Gloucester- 

 shire proved to be ichneumoned. Dr. F. B. W. White states 

 in his " Lepidoptera of Scotland " that one was taken near 

 Paisley by Mr. Morris Young, but no date is given, nor any 

 indication whether this was a larva or an image. A specimen 

 " from Scotland," formerly in Mr. Buxton's collection, may 

 be the same individual. It has been stated, but not, I believe, 

 confirmed, that a larva has been found at the foot of an aspen 

 on Clapham Common, London. I know of no other records 

 in these Islands, and it is hard to believe these to be more 

 than the produce of casual and desultory immigration, rapidly 

 dying out under stress of climate. Abroad it does not seem 

 to be a very common species. Godart says that he has taken 

 it two or three times near Paris ; but it seems to be found 



