NO TODONTID.E. 135 



Pupa stout, rounded, anal extremity round, with very- 

 minute bristles. Dark purplish, brown. In a compact, hard, 

 oval cocoon of silk and earth. Underground, usually at the 

 roots of oak trees. In this state through the winter. The 

 Rev. Joseph Greene, who has dug up hundreds of the pupse, 

 says " search the friable sods collected in the corners of the 

 roots, or the corners themselves without any sod. The cocoon 

 is sometimes attached to the tree, but more usually among 

 the grass-roots ; in either case great caution is necessary. 

 When you have pulled the sod out, put your hand in, and 

 gently feel the trunk for any cocoons which may adhere to it. 

 When the sod is loosely attached to the tree, and not between 

 the roots, and the soil is dry and friable, this is a favoured 

 locality with larvao. By taking hold of the grass and pulling 

 it gently the sod can easily be removed and the pupas will 

 fall down ; or if spun up, will, not uncommonly, be found 

 fixed to the trunk, or that part of the sod which lay against 

 it." This excellent information is applicable to many species 

 besides the present. 



Like the previous species, this moth may, occasionally, be 

 found in the afternoon sitting upon a tree-trunk, or paling, 

 close to the place of its emergence. At night it flies with 

 great vigour and swiftness, and the male may be readily 

 secured by means of a strong light. I have even known it 

 to fly into a house. Most attached to open parks, and scat- 

 tered oak timber, but found also in woods. More frequent 

 than D. chaonia, and though never very common, found 

 throughout the Southern half of England, to Nottinghamshire, 

 Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and Herefordshire, though very 

 scarce in Norfolk and Suffolk. It has been taken in Warwick- 

 shire, is extremely local in Yoi'kshire, and in Cheshire very 

 rare. In Wales only recorded from the Swansea district ; 

 in Scotland from Clydesdale and the Solway district. Mr. 

 E. Birchall's record, " Not uncommon at Killarney," seems 

 to have been a mistake. Abroad it is somewhat local, but 



