148 LEPIDOP TERA . 



species of poplar, and less frequently on willow and sallow ; 

 feeding on the' leaves, often with great rapidity, the whole 

 time from the egg to the pupa state sometimes occupying not 

 more than three weeks. 



Pupa stout, cylindrical, shining, a little produced in front; 

 abdomen tapering, dilated at the end and furnished with a 

 short curved spike ; segments well divided. Colour glossy 

 purple-brown. In a rather soft ovate cocoon of silk and 

 earth, often at the roots of trees. The Kev. Joseph Green says : 

 " Occasionally at poplars, but more frequently at willows, 

 especially when on the bank of a ditch or stream. The side 

 of the tree which faces a stream is often clothed with grassy 

 sods of loose friable earth ; this is the place for palpina ; 

 shake the sod well, and the cocoon will generally be found 

 among the dry roots. End of September." It lies in this 

 condition through the winter, but the pupa hunter is often 

 forestalled by mouse, beetle, earwig, or Oniscus, if he does not 

 search in good time. 



The moth flies vigorously and in a wild and bewildering 

 manner at late dusk — occasionally at early dusk — and well 

 into the night. The male is readily attracted by a strong 

 light, and was formerly by no means rare at gas-lamps in the 

 London suburbs ; sometimes even remaining all day on the 

 lamp frame upon which it had settled on the previous night. 

 In the daytime it is rarely found, though occasionally it may 

 be seen sitting on a paling or tree trunk. But it may most 

 easily be overlooked from its extraordinary resemblance to a 

 pale twisted leaf, or even more accurately to a bit of broken, 

 withered, bramble-stick, the prominences and tufts exactly 

 like thorns, the projecting palpi and forked tail like loose 

 bits of fibre, and the wings wrapped so closely round the body 

 as perfectly to complete the mimicry. 



Common in the South, East, and South-west of England 

 and in South Wales ; less common or even rare in some of 

 the Midland counties, but probably existing, wherever poplars 



