276 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



The perfect insect appears in June and July, and may 

 be obtained plentifully by beating hawthorn hedges ; or 

 we may find it at rest on palings with its head down- 

 wards, and standing on its two first pairs of legs, the 

 hind pair being stowed away by the side of the body. 



FAMILY X. G-RACILARIID^. 

 GRACILAEIA STIGMATELLA. 



This species is also tolerably common and pretty 

 generally distributed throughout the country ; it is not 

 recorded, however, as occurring in Scotland or Ireland. 



The expansion of the wings is rather more than ^ 

 inch. The fore-wings are reddish-brown, with a con- 

 spicuous whitish-yellow triangular spot on the middle of 

 the costa; this reaches to the fold, and its apex is there 

 a little produced posteriorly. 



The larva is greenish-white, with the head yellowish- 

 brown ; it feeds in August and September on leaves of 

 willow, sallow and poplar, rolling them into the form of 

 a sugar-loaf. 



The perfect insect appears in September and October, 

 and may sometimes be met with at ivy-blossoms ; it 

 lives through the winter, and reappears in the spring- 

 in rather wasted condition ; it is then frequently found 

 on the blossoms of sallows by those searching for the 

 Tceniocampce ; it may occasionally be found at rest on 

 palings, with its head much elevated and the middle 

 pair of legs stuck out to give it a firmer position. 



Closely allied to this is that pest of our gardens, 

 Gracilaria syringella, which often discolours all the 

 leaves of our lilac bushes in the middle of summer. 



