RUDDY HIGHFLYER. 21 5 



the back, the central one is black and swells out on the middle 

 of each ring, the others are pale ; a clear stripe of the ground 

 colour below the black spiracles, and a slender line above them. 

 The general colour is sometimes pale pinky brown or ochreous. 

 It feeds on alder throughout the summer and autumn, and may 

 be found in its domicile of spun-together dry leaves even in 

 November, and sometimes later. Occasionally, a few cater- 

 pillars will feed up quickly, and attain the moth state in July 

 or August, but the bulk do not become chrysahds until later in 

 the year, and the moths emerge therefrom in May and early 

 June. (Plate 87, Fig. 2.) 



The species seems to occur, more or less freely, wherever 

 there are alders throughout the greater part of the British Isles. 



Abroad, the range extends to Eastern Siberia and Amurland. 



Ruddy Highflyer {Hydrio?ne?ia ruberata). 



This species is most readily distinguished from the last by 

 the short oblique black streak on the tips of the rather narrower 

 fore wings ; there are also black streaks between the veins and 

 below the tips of the wings, as in the last species, but they are 

 generally shorter and often hardly traceable. 



The ground colour ranges from pale grey (sometimes with a 

 green tinge), through brownish grey to reddish brown ; usually 

 central and outer marginal bands of a darker shade are present, 

 but these characters may "be very indistinct or entirely lost in 

 the general coloration. (Plate 86, Figs. 11 and 12.) 



The caterpillar is pale brown, dappled with grey ; three dark 

 greyish lines along the back ; spiracles and the usual dots 

 black, the latter with fine hairs ; head, reddish brown, plates on 

 first and last rings of the body light brown. It feeds, at night, 

 during the summer and autumn, on sallow and willow, spinning 

 together the leaves at the top of a twig to form a retreat 

 during the day. 



