19S [September, 



discovering, when tbe moth appears, that what we had hoped might be 

 the vanguard of a new^ species just about to invade our district, w-as 

 only an old friend in a new guise. 



I propose in these notes to examine, in the first place, each of 

 these several heads, food-plant, egg, &c., separately, and afterwards to 

 apply the results for distinguishing between certain allied species 

 which are usually considered hard to separate in the larval condition. 

 If, among much that is of necessity common knowledge, there should 

 be anything new or helpful in what T am about to write, it must be 

 chiefly ascribed to my good fortune in living in what I believe to be 

 quite a paradise for these charming little insects. My hunting ground 

 is a bit of rough, hilly country on the limestone, barely three miles 

 across in any direction ; and in this small space rather more than fifty 

 species have already been taken. My field of observation, therefore, 

 has been both rich and compact, as w^ell as close at hand. Moreover, 

 for years I have been devoted to the subject, and even now, on the 

 return of autumn, the old interest revives as keen as ever, and sends 

 me off to some favourite corner of my ground, there to while aw^ay 

 my leisure moments. Purely local, then^ as my experience has been, 

 it has, nevertheless, been gathering long, and from a field siifiiciently 

 ample ; and I mention this, lest it might be thought that I have 

 attached too great importance to some of the characters I shall draw 

 attention to, w^hich a wdder outlook would not warrant. 



FOOD-PLANT. 



Little can be said here that is not already w^ell known. Particular 

 natural Orders, as might be expected, are especial favourites with our 

 insects. The Mosacece and Amentacece supply between them the food- 

 plant of something like five-sixths of the British species ; and not 

 only so, but the favouritism extends to particular members of these 

 Orders. Thus the birch supports at least ten species, the oak five, the 

 hawthorn and apple also five each, then four feed on the roses, three 

 at least on the willows, the same number on pear, and so on down the 

 list, until at last we reach an insignificant minority of two or three 

 plants which are tenanted only by single species. Out of the nine 

 other productive Orders, the UrticacecB give us the elms which support 

 three species, the EricacecB supply two plants, each tenanted by a 

 single species, whilst the remaining seven (although amongst them are 

 groups of great extent like the Lequminosce and LahiatcB) contain but 

 one kind of plant each, acceptable to the NepticiilcB, and each kind is 



