13 



return some years later it appeared to have completely vanished 

 from the neighbourhood. In 1875 and 1877 I was at Deal; in 

 both years it was abundant both in the hedges in the surrounding 

 country and on the brambles by the coast, and in the later year even 

 the sea buckthorns (Hippophae rham/ioides), growing on the sandhills, 

 were literally eaten up by it. In 1881 and 1882 I was again at 

 Deal, and, wishing to extend my series, made diligent search for the 

 larvae, both on the hedges in the country and among the brambles 

 and sea-buckthorn bushes by the sea, but failed to find even a trace 

 of them. In 1877 or 1878 Mr. Rowland-Brown found the larva; 

 commonly on the bushes along the Lower Sandgate Road at 

 Folkestone. In 1879 I found larvae fairly commonly on a hedge 

 near Higham, Kent, but although for several years afterwards I 

 frequently worked this same hedge I saw no more of the larvae. It 

 is also recorded that, for several years, at some time previous to 

 1882, it was very abundant on the hedges between Gravesend and 

 the village of Chalk, but disappeared at, or just previous to, that 

 time. Then follows a period of upwards of ten years with only 

 some four or five records, two or three of which have been shown to 

 refer to Porthesia similis, not P. chrysorrhcea, and the remaining two 

 are doubtful. One of them is in a list of the " Lepidoptera of 

 Dulwich," published by Mr. Helps in 1891, in which the species 

 that have occurred "during the last few years" are given, and 

 P. chrysorrhcea is included among them ; but this may well refer to 

 the period previous to 1880, when the species was undoubtedly of 

 common occurrence throughout the south-eastern district. The 

 other is by Mr. Baxter, of St. Ann's-on-Sea (Lancashire), where, in a 

 very casually written note on collecting, he mentions that on the 

 1st (presumably of August) he " had a splendid day," and includes 

 " Liparis chrysorrhcea, etc.," among his captures ; possibly this also 

 like other records of about the same period may refer to P. similis, 

 there apparently having been a strange confusion in the minds of 

 some collectors between these two species. 



But from 1894 onwards the species was again found. In that year 

 Mr. Gervase Mathew met with a few larvse near Sittingbourne, and 

 Mr. Eustace Bankes records the capture of a male imago at light 

 at Swanage. In 1896 Mr. Mathew found a small brood near Dover- 

 court ; imagines were also taken at Folkestone and in North Wales. 

 In 1897 Commander Walker met with the winter larval nests fairly 

 plentiful at Sheerness, and in the following year they became very 

 common. Imagines came to light at Folkestone in 1899; I found 

 larvae at Brighton, on a hawthorn growing right in the town, in 1900. 

 Mr. Kennard found larvae commonly at Eastbourne in 1902; and 

 the species appears to have continued to occur each year in increasing 

 numbers to the present time ; my last experience of it being the 

 finding of larvae in great profusion in one small spot near Eastbourne 

 in June last. 



It thus appears that after becoming increasingly common up to 



