404 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



In colour it is of a dirty grey, with a slight yellowish tinge. Gardner says 

 the cocoon is white, and spun amongst moss atthe roots of the food-plant. 

 Edmunds found above 100 cocoons on May 22nd, 1863, span up 

 among Hypnum triquetrum, and remarks that they were attached only to 

 moderately grown plants of this moss, neither the very long nor 

 very short moss giving any cocoons. 



Pupa. — The pupa of A. geryon is described by Hellins as being 

 about 9 mm. long, fusiform, the head small, the abdomen plump, the 

 eye- and antenna-cases well-developed, the wing-cases long and free 

 at the edge, the tongue-case reaching nearly to the anal segment, and 

 free beyond the edge of the wing-cases, with one pair of legs parallel, 

 nearly as long, and also free ; the anal segment rounded. A trans- 

 verse row of small points on the front edge of the back of each of the 

 abdominal segments. The colour of a deep shining olive on the wings 

 and head, the abdomen being more bronzy. 



Parasites. — Apanteles geryonis, Marshall, bred by Messrs. Hutchin- 

 son and J. E. Robson, Limneria fulviventris, Gmelin, and Apanteles 

 nothus, Eeinhard (Bignell). 



Food-plants. — Helianthemum vulgare (Weir, Hellins), H. chamae- 

 cistas (Aurivillius). [Newman gives Faimex acetosella, but Edmunds, 

 Horton and Hellins deny this as a food-plant.] 



Habits and habitat. — The species was introduced into the British 

 lists as Procris tenuicornis in 1859, by Edmunds, who took specimens 

 in Worcestershire, flying on limestone ridges (IntelL, vol. vii., p. 196). 

 Doubleday then received specimens from Brighton resembling P. 

 tenuicornis from Dalmatia, but Guenee referred these to the A. gen/on 

 of Hiibner (A chrysocephala of later authors). The Brighton and 

 Worcester specimens were considered to be identical [IntelL, vol. viii., 

 pp. 21-22), and the distinction of the species from A. statices was 

 determined by Edmunds and Horton, who discovered the larva on the 

 Malvern Hills. On the Continent it is generally considered a mountain 

 species, and is generally known from the higher Alps, under the name 

 of chrysocephala, but it also occurs at lower levels (in the Rhine Valley, 

 in dry places near Vienna, etc.). The fact is, the species appears 

 to be confined to chalk and limestone districts where its food-plant 

 grows, and, where suitable spots occur, the elevation matters little. 

 Thus it occurs at low levels in the Rhine valley as with us, but owing 

 to most of the entomologically best known limestone districts on 

 the continent being among the mountains, it has become better known 

 from these districts than elsewhere. In Sussex, near Lewes, A. 

 geryon frequents a dry sunny bank on the downs, facing due 

 south, with extensive patches of Helianthemum vulgare, on which 

 the larva has been found (W. E.. Nicholson) ; near Winchester, on 

 the side of a hill, on the banks bounding a large hollow known 

 as the Devil's Punch Bowl (Broome). It occurs over a wide range 

 of the Cotswolds, being especially abundant about five miles from 

 Gloucester ; some years (1896) it is abundant, in others (1897) com- 

 paratively rare (Merrin). At Dursley, the males fly among the long 

 grass in hundreds, the females hide among the grass (Griffiths) ; on 

 the open downs of the Cotswolds (Todd) ; above Gloucester (on the 

 Cotswolds) it flies in a woodland glade, about 700 ft. above the sea, 

 on the Inferior Oolite formation, and on the hills above the Stad 

 Valley, in an upland ancient lane (Watkins). Along the hills lying 



