CHIMNEY-SWEEPER. 1 47 



texture. After it has flown for a time, the wings become paler, 

 and lose most of their sheen. 



The thick-set, roughish caterpillar is reddish brown, dotted 

 with pale ochreous ; there is a slender white line along the 

 middle of the back, and black oblique streaks on the sides ; a 

 blackish wavy line along the area of the spiracles is bordered 

 below with yellowish. It feeds on wood spurge {Euphorbia 

 amygdaloides) and also, I have reason to believe, on petty 

 spurge {E. peplus\ a rather common weed in some gardens, 

 from July to September. In forward seasons the moth, which 

 flies in the sunshine, has been noted in late April, but May and 

 June are the best months for it. In the New Forest, and else- 

 where, it has occurred in August. On one occasion I remember 

 that, in a garden at Brockenhurst, several specimens were taken 

 in the autumn, and it was supposed that they resulted from eggs 

 laid by a damaged female that had been captured in the woods 

 and turned out into said garden. It has been taken at gas 

 lamps, at Dorking among other places. 



The species has been recorded from Pembrokeshire, 

 Glamorganshire, and Monmouth, in South Wales ; and it 

 appears to be found in most of the counties of England 

 southwards from Worcester, Hereford, Gloucester, Oxford, 

 and Bucks. Except that it has been doubtfully recorded from 

 Stowmarket, Suffolk, it does not seem to be found in the 

 eastern counties ; and I cannot find that it has been noted 

 from Devon or Cornwall. 



The range abroad extends to Amurland. 



Chimney-sweeper (Odezia atrafa). 



This white-tipped but otherwise plain black moth (Plate 55, 

 Figs. 4 5 , 5 ? ) is very constant, and except that specimens after 

 having been on the wing for a day or two become sooty brown, 

 there is nothing much to note. It is the fringe at the tip of the 



