TRIFIDjE. 379 



Pupa undescribed. 



The moth hides itself iu the daytime at the roots of grass 

 or under any convenient shelter, and is said to enter houses 

 where they exist in its favourite localities. The late Mr. G. 

 Norman captured many specimens at Forres in the North-east 

 of Scotland as they were trying to escape through the windows 

 of a house just after dusk. Mr. Reid says that it has a 

 curious habit, when disturbed at night, of crawling under 

 loose bark and planks, on palings or outhouses. It comes 

 readily to sugar and to the blossoms of ragwort, thistle, wood- 

 sage, heather, tansy, dock, reed, yellow flag, and in gardens 

 to sweet-william. It is very local, principally frequenting 

 sea cliffs and hills inland, and is found on the South coast of 

 England at Portland, Charmouth, and rarely elsewhere in 

 Dorsetshire. It is difficult to understand how it can be 

 absent from the sea cliffs of Devon and Cornwall, but I can 

 find no record of its presence. Inland it has been found on 

 the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire. Further northward it is 

 more f req uent, being found in Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, 

 Yorkshire, Westmoreland and Cumberland, also at the Isle 

 of Man, and in North Wales in Flintshire and Denbighshire. 

 Much more widely distributed in Scotland, being found in the 

 Tweed and Forth districts, in Ayrshire, Morayshire, and 

 generally in Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire ; also in 

 Argyleshire, and in the Hebrides and Orkneys. In Ireland, 

 so far as I know, only two specimens have been obtained, 

 both near Sligo ; these are in the collection of Mr. F. J. 

 Hanbury. Abroad it is very widely distributed over the 

 Continent of Europe and is found in Siberia. 



[A. helvetina, 5f/t'.— This Alpine species, of which the 

 fore wings are long and rather pointed, and of a uniform 

 olive brown, or lead-brown colour, with brown hind wings, 

 was recorded as British in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine^ 



