2o8 



XANTHIA AURAGO IN THE WEST RIDING 

 OF YORKSHIRE. 



B. MORLEY, 



Skiiinanthorpe. 



The status of Xanthia aurago as a Yorkshire species is based 

 on the capture of about two dozen specimens, all within the 

 area of Doncaster, Rotherham, Sheffield, Barnsley and Skel- 

 manthorpe (leaving out Stainton's record of its occurrence 

 at York). According to Mr. Porritt's ' List of Yorkshire 

 Lepidoptera,' the first West Riding specimen was taken at 

 Sheffield in 1859. The species was also taken there in i860, 

 and again in 1887. In 1893 it was captured at Rotherham and 

 Doncaster ; was taken at Skelmanthorpe in 1900 and 1901, 

 and at Barnsley in 1903. At Skelmanthorpe the species was 

 not seen during the period from 1901 to 1911, when three 

 specimens were secured in Deffer Wood. It is interesting to 

 know that it has been taken in so many widely-separated 

 districts in our county, but the rarity and uncertainty of 

 its appearances rather limits the satisfaction of knowing 

 that it is included in our county's fauna. 



The re-appearance of the species in Deffer Wood after the 

 lapse of ten years, suggested the continuity of a race, and that 

 it must be established there, but if that were the case, some 

 substitute food was used, for its ordinary food, beech or maple, 

 are both wevy scarce in the wood. Sycamore on the other hand, 

 being very plentiful, was thought to be the probable substi- 

 tute. 



One of the moths taken last autumn was a female, and, after 

 being kept alive for sixteen days, laid a few eggs here and there 

 on twigs of beech. About the middle of April this year the 

 little larvae began to emerge from the eggs, and they were put 

 upon bursting buds of sycamore. When it was almost too. 

 late, however, it was found that a grave mistake had been made, 

 as unblown buds only should have been used. The larvae 

 when young are confirmed miners, and the necessary substance 

 they require to mine into not having been supplied, man}- of 

 them died. But a few revived and revealed their habit. 

 The buds are entered at the base, and at once their develop- 

 ment is arrested. Securely sealed in the interior, the larvae 

 consume all the inside of the buds, and find enough food to half 

 complete their growth before they retire from their burrows. 

 The bracts of the buds are not eaten, but are left complete. 

 The next operation of the larvae is to spin the edges of two 

 leaves together, and hide inside during the daytime, or descend 

 from the tree and hide on the ground, leaving the hiding places 

 at night to feed on the expanded foliage. 



Naturalist, 



