LEPIDOPTEROUS FAUNA OF PORTLAND. 51 



however, that it must be one of these very common plants, or some- 

 thing nearly allied to one of them. It is an inconspicuous brown 

 larva, which falls off its food plant on being touched, and would, 

 therefore, require much looking for. I certainly found this moth 

 commonest last season (1889) in one rather limited area, where I 

 took 8 or 9 out of a total of 1 1 on July 2nd all in the daytime 

 but I doubt whether it is, as a rule, so local as I then found it. 



In connection with this moth I may mention that the genus 

 Addalia contains 25 regular British species, besides 2 or 3 whose 

 claims are not quite so well founded, though they have no doubt 

 occurred in this country. Of this number 1 1 have been recorded 

 from Portland. I have met with all but two, of which one 

 (A. immutata) is recorded by Mr. C. W. Dale, and the other 

 (A. remutata) by Colonel Partridge, who has been stationed at 

 Portland for two seasons, and has, therefore, had great opportunities 

 for collecting. The genus is, therefore, fairly well represented at 

 Portland, and one might judge from this that it was a favourable 

 locality for the preservation of one of the species which did not 

 occur elsewhere ; yet there is nothing so very striking about this 

 fact as there would be if 15 or 20 out of the 25 species occurred 

 instead of 11. A. degeneraria is not of very retiring habits, as it 

 is easily disturbed in the daytime by beating the bushes ; but it 

 generally flies out only a very short distance and then settles on 

 the ground or a leaf with its wings spread flat out, and looks 

 helpless. From my experience of this moth in the daytime I should 

 have said that it was one of the weakest flyers that I had seen of 

 the genus Addalia ; my experience of it by night when it flies 

 naturally has been very small, but Colonel Partridge, who tells me 

 that he has taken a good many at night, says that he considers it a 

 very quick-flying and difficult insect to catch at light. He adds 

 "I never could manage to do much with it at dusk, when it 

 invariably began to fly, and at the big lamp I found it hard to take. 

 I never found its flight weak." He says also that its flight 

 resembles that of A. promutata, which is anything but a weak 

 flyer. Until I heard this from Colonel Partridge I was disposed to 



