352 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Stephens, writing of it in 1828, remarks : "Occasionally taken 

 on poplars, near London, in June. I have obtained it from 

 the neighbourhood of Bexley, and from Birchwood ; but it is 

 doubtless a rare species, and exists in few collections : of the 

 male, I have hitherto seen but two specimens, one of which I 

 possess." Both places mentioned by Stephens are in Kent, 

 and one or two specimens of the species have since been 

 reported from Ashford in the same county. The late Henry 

 Doubleday took specimens at Epping, Essex. Colney Hatch 

 Wood in Middlesex has also been given as a locality in the 

 past ; more recently two specimens have been noted from 

 Chiswick. The example shown on Plate 154, Fig. 4, is of 

 continental origin. 



The caterpillar lives under the bark of poplar trunks, and 

 the moth flies in June and July. 



Welsh Clearwing {Sesia scoliceformis). 



As a British species this insect was first noted from 

 Llangollen, in North Wales, somewhere about fifty years ago. 

 In 1867 it was found to inhabit birch woods in the Rannoch 

 district of Scotland, and later on its presence was detected in 

 Sutherlandshire. It has been recorded from Hereford ; one 

 example was reported from Wiltshire in 1857 ; and two from 

 Delamere Forest, Cheshire (1901 and 1905). Kane {Catalogue 

 of the Lepidoptera of Ireland') states that moths have been 

 taken at Killarney, and caterpillars obtained in the same 

 district, and also at Kenmare. 



The caterpillar (Plate 156, Fig. 3 ; after Hofmann) feeds on 

 the inner layer of bark of large birch trees, and is full grown 

 about May. It turns to a dark brownish chrysalis, in a cocoon 

 formed close up to the bark, which thinly covers the outer end 

 of the burrow. The moth flies in June or sometimes July. It 



