

LEPlDOPTEROUS FAUNA OF PORTLAND. 53 



many of the species of this genus which makes them peculiarly 

 susceptible to external influences and unable to live, except under 

 very favourable conditions. 



The only other moth which occurs regularly in this locality and 

 has not been found elsewhere in the British Isles is Dutalis siccella. 

 Its occurrence was noticed by Mr. Eustace Bankes in Ent. Mon. Mag. 

 (Vol. xxiii., 275, xxiv., 246), and also in Vol. ix., p. 118, of our 

 "Proceedings," and a figure of it given in Vol. x. It is very closely 

 allied to Butalis variella, which occurs on heaths in this county, and 

 was formerly looked upon as a small variety of this species, until 

 Mr. Bankes suggested its distinctness. He gives as food plants of 

 the larva Thymus serpyllum, Lotus corniculatus, and Plantago 

 lanceolata, all very common plants. In this case it is very difficult 

 to see any reason why this moth should not be generally distributed. 

 It is certainly not limited by the range of its food plants and is not 

 of specially retiring habits, though it does not, as far as I have 

 observed, indulge in flights of more than a few yards in length, its 

 usual movements being a series of jumps something like those of a 

 grasshopper, which lengthens its leap by spreading its wings, a 

 mode of progression which is also common to B. variella. Not 

 only is B. siccella confined to this one locality, but even here it is 

 extremely local and only found in one spot of very limited dimen- 

 sions. It is also found in Germany, where it occurs in " Sandy 

 Scotch Fir Woods." 



One other moth, Hadena albifusa, a North-American species, is 

 only known as British from a single capture by Colonel Partridge at 

 Portland, in 1888. It is said by some authorities to be a variety 

 of H. cJtenopodii, a not uncommon moth at Portland, which would 

 account for its presence there ; other authorities, however, maintain 

 that it is distinct. I have not seen it, so can give no opinion. 

 (E. M. M., xxv., 180, 228.) 



Two specimens of another species, Luperina Dumerilii, were 

 takenat Portland Lighthouse about 1858, the only other British 

 record that I know of being that of 3 specimens taken by Mr. 

 Rogers in the Isle of Wight at about the same time (Ent. Ann., 



