PORTLAND LEPIDOPTERA. 149 



Turning to the Chesil Beach Agrotis ripce is there very local, 

 though its food plants, Chenopodium and other coast plants, are not 

 so limited in their distribution. 



Perhaps the most striking instance of all is that of Stenia 

 punctalis, the larva of which feeds under stones on vegetable 

 rubbish composed of grass stems and roots, dead leaves of plants, 

 &c., all of which, including the stones, might be found in any 

 part of Portland or the Chesil Beach. I have, however, as far 

 as I can remember, never captured a single specimen of the 

 moth on the west side of the Chesil Beach Railway, though on the 

 narrow strip on the east side it is to bo found in great numbers. 

 At Portland it is very local, but as on the beach, where it occurs 

 it is decidedly common, and on a good evening for moths may 

 sometimes be seen literally in hundreds ; being of a peculiar shape, 

 with long body and long legs it is easily recognised during its 

 slow and somewhat heavy flight. 



Another group of moths consists of those which are necessarily 

 very local on account of the restricted range of their food-plants. 



There are hardly any damp spots or ponds to be found, and from 

 this cause alone many plants are exceedingly local. 



Sallow is in most places a common tree and supports, according to 

 Mr. St. John's Handbook of the LarvaB of British Macro-lepidoptera, 

 no less than 74 species, or about a tenth of the caterpillars of the 

 larger moths, as well as numerous kinds of the smaller ones, many 

 of these having, however, also other food-plants. Sallow only 

 occurs, as far as I know, at two damp spots in Portland, and 

 Mentha liirsuta (hairy water mint), and rushes are almost equally 

 limited ; consequently we have to depend on these little patches 

 for the following 17 species : Dicranura furcula, Gonoptera 

 libatrix, Cabera exantliemaria, Lomaspilis marginata, Eupitliecia 

 tenuiata, Hijpsipetes sordidata, Cidaria testata, Peronea hastiana, 

 Badra lanceolana, Scoparia pallida, Eupoecilia nofulana, Coleoplwra 

 ccespititiella, Glypliipteryx thrasonella, Arcfyresthia pygmceella, 

 Gracilaria stigmatella, Litliocolletis viminiella, Nepticula salicis, 

 and possibly others. 



