94 CA.TA.LOGTJE OF MOTHS. 



list, and in that in Ornsby's Durham. Mr. Backhouse found 

 larvae on oak in September, 1844. More recent records are: 

 **Meldon Park, not uncommon," J. Finlay; ''Jesmond," M. 

 Henderson J " Winlaton Mill and Staward Peel," T. Rhagg; 

 "larvae sometimes abundant at Axwell and Thornley," T. H. 

 Hed worth. When I commenced to collect, the larvae swarmed 

 in Crimdon Cut and in Hezleden Dene, but they have not been 

 seen for a long time until Mr. Gardner took one larva last year. 

 This is not easy to explain. The larvae are gregarious and feed 

 on a great many different trees, and are tolerably hardy. The 

 imago, when at rest, folds its wings closely round its body, and 

 looks curiously like a piece of birch twig broken off at each end, 

 the buff head and buff tips to the wings closely resembling the 

 broken wood, while the striped, silvery wings are very like a 

 bit of Birch bark. This is called a protective resemblance, but 

 pieces of Birch twig broken about an inch long do not lie about 

 everywhere as do withered leaves or bird droppings. Neverthe- 

 less the resemblance is very close and very curious. 



GLOSTERA, Hoff. 



58. Clostera curtula, (Linn.). Chocolate Tip. 



Clostera curtula. Staint. Man., vol. i., p. 127. ' 



„ „ Newm. Brit. Moths, p. 221. 



,, ,, Barr. Lep. Brit. Is., vol. iii., p. 166. 



Pygoera ,, Meyr. Hdbk. Brit. Lep., p. 203. 



Laeva. Buck., vol. iii., pi. xxxvii., fig. 3 ; 0. Wils , pi. xxix., 



fig. 3. 



The only claim Cui'tula has to inclusion in our fauna is that 

 Mr. C. Eales took a specimen at rest on palings at South Shields. 

 There was a specimen in the Twizell collection when it was 

 examined for me, but it is not in the Twizell list, and I have 

 no evidence that this specimen was taken there. In any case it 

 could but be a casual visitor, for though it has occurred in the 

 York district its range does not extend nearly so far north. 



