[117] LOCALITY FOR BREPHOS INFANS. 229 



found at rest on the upper edge of the fence-boards (very 

 singularly, none were on the upper board), the other two 

 were on the more exposed north side of the fence. It seemed 

 as if these little creatures had come out to enjoy the cold 

 and driving snow-storm, which certainly failed to add to my 

 comfort. At a late hour in the afternoon (5 P. M.) I also had 

 the good fortune to secure a Lobophora geminata (Grote). 



Neither of the above three species had before been found 

 in this locality. 



Subsequent trips gave me no additional examples of B. 

 infans, although I saw it in flight quite wild so late as 

 May 7th." 



Guenee, in his Noctuelites, II, makes some interesting 

 remarks on the habits of the European species of BREPHOS, 

 which is here transcribed : 



The caterpillars live on the tall trees, from which, letting 

 themselves fall, they hang suspended by a thread, after the 

 manner of many of the Geometers. They are found in 

 autumn, in woods of considerable extent, and their moths 

 fly in the first days of spring, or as might better be said, 

 at the end of winter, about the leafless birches. Their flight 

 is lively, jerky (saccade) and rapid, but the sun is indis- 

 pensable to draw them from their torpor. Hardly do its 

 rays veil themselves, even for an instant, when the Brephos 

 arrest their flight, to resume it as soon as it commences to 

 shine. In these habits, they bear much resemblance to the 

 Phalaenidse which like them fly in the early spring; and 

 there is also a resemblance in the habits and forma of the 

 caterpillars. 



Mr. C. P. Whitney, of Milford, N. H., writes me in relation 

 to the habits of B. infans: "I take it very early in the spring 

 (this year [1877]) about the middle of April, only in the vicin- 

 ity of the white birch (Betula populifolia.) Its season is 

 about two weeks. . Their flight is rapid and irregular, so that 

 it is almost impossible to capture them except when resting 

 on the ground, when almost every one discovered can be easily 

 taken. Late in the season they fly high and alight on the 

 twigs of the birches." 



