NOTODONTID^. 169 



wing. In the daytime it may occasionally be found sitting 

 on the trunk of an aspen, and when captured feigns death, 

 but very soon becomes violent if enclosed in a box, in which 

 case its wings are quickly broken and the specimen spoiled. 

 The vast majority of those in collections are reared, the 

 method of feeding of the larva making it tolerably conspi- 

 cuous and easy to find. 



Formerly considered a rather common species, but now 

 extremely local and far from plentiful. Probably more fre- 

 quent in Kent than anywhere else ; also found in several 

 places in Sussex and in the Isle of Wight. Very local in 

 Berks, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire; more 

 rarely found in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Hereford- 

 shire, Leicestershire, Yorkshire, and even Cumberland, which 

 seems to be its northern limit. I know of no records of its 

 occurrence in Wales or the extreme West of England, and 

 the late Mr. Birchall's record at Clonmel, Ireland, is not 

 confirmed, and seems to have been a mistake. Abroad it is 

 found throughout Central Europe, Northern Europe (except 

 the coldest portions), in Piedmont, Corsica, Bulgaria, and 

 Asia Minor. 



2. C. anachoreta, -FaJ.— Expanse 1^ to 1| inch. Fore 

 wings smoky-grey or reddish-grey, with a triangular smoky- 

 red apical blotch and two black spots beneath it; thorax 

 with a small crest. 



Antennae of the male strongly pectinated, teeth blackish, 

 shaft brown ; head densely tufted, pale grey-brown, with a 

 large blackish-brown spot on the crown extending back over 

 the collar, and sometimes quite back over the middle of the 

 thorax, in a narrow bar of long upright scales ; thorax on 

 each side of this also covered with long grey scales, and 

 having at the back an erect pointed crest ; abdomen long, 

 moderately stout but tapering, grey or grey-brown, with a 

 large constricted but spreading and forked anal tuft, which is 

 darker at the tips. Fore wings narrow at the base, broa<J 



