56 VARIETIES OP 



among the three families, and one of these, Ophiodes lunar is t is very 

 rare. Guenee writes of the first of these families, the Ophiusidce, as 

 follows : " This family is the most numerous of all the NOOTU^E- 

 QUADRIFID^E. One meets here and there some European species, all 

 classified together formerly by Ochsenheimer in his genus Ophima, 

 but of which each has now become so to speak the type of a separate 

 genus." " The imagines rarely quit the woods or places where the 

 larvse have fed. They hide during the day in the brushwood, and 

 sometimes come out in the middle of the day to take a violent flight, 

 which is, however, of short duration. They are usually abundant in 

 collections, probably because of their diurnal habits, which allow 

 collectors to capture them at the only time when their excursions 

 would make it practicable " (' Noctuelles,' vol. vii., p. 220). 



Ophiodes, Gn., Innaris, Schiff. 



This species is common in the greater part of Europe during May, 

 but very little is known of it as a British species, very few specimens 

 having been captured. Schiffermiiller's description is little beyond a 

 catalogue reference. He writes : " With a blackish imperfect lunar- 

 shaped spot on the fore wings " (' Sys. Verz.' etc., p. 94). 



Of the first occurrence of this species in Britain Mr. Stainton 

 writes : " Ophiodes lunaris ; first enumerated as British in Doubleday's 

 ' Catalogue,' p. ii ; a single specimen was taken by Captain Chawner 

 in Hampshire. Of this species Guenee says, ' common in dry woods 

 throughout Europe in May.' ' The larvae feed in July on oak ' " ('Ent. 

 Ann.,' 1855, p. 16). Of the capture of the second British specimen of 

 this species Mr. Stainton writes : " A fine specimen of Ophiodes 

 lunaris was taken at sugar at West Wickham Wood, May 27th, by Mr. 

 Smith of Walworth (' Int.,' viii., p. 91 ; < Zoologist,' 7108). This is 

 only the second specimen that has occurred in Britain ; the insect is 

 not rare in oak woods in Belgium, and will probably soon be turned 

 up in greater numbers in some parts of the South of England ; a figure 

 of the insect will be seen on our frontispiece (fig. 4) " (' Ent. Ann.,' 

 1861, p. 99, fig. 4). Besides these Newman gives "two specimens 

 captured at Killarney, in Ireland, by the late Peter Bouchard " 

 (' British Moths,' p. 468). The most recent records are the capture of 

 one specimen at Brighton by Mr. Trangmar in 1874, wde'Entom.,' vii., 

 p. 164 ; and a specimen in Sussex recorded by Mr. Tugwell, ' Entom.,' 

 viii., p. 164. The last recorded British specimen was captured by 

 Mr. Austin, at Folkestone, in May of the present year, and was reported 

 in the ' Entomologist's Record ' etc.. vol. iii., p. 132. 



2. Family : Euclididce, Gn. 



This family is much less extensive than the Ophitisidce, and in 

 Britain we have only two species, both of which are in the genus 

 Euclidia. These two species are very common and fly in the sun, and, 

 although so different in colour and markings, their habits are very 

 similar. Guenee writes of the Euclididce : " They are easily recognised 

 in all their states. The imagines are recognised by their appearance 

 which is slightly Phalseniform or Pyraliform, by their slender and 

 almost smooth abdomina, by their very long feet, very slender and 

 scarcely furnished with scales, by their short and closely grouped palpi, 



