ANTHROCERA (lYCASTEs) EXULANS. 451 



nences, thickly studded with short black radiating bristles, and a single 

 long and fine hair. These almost or quite hide the green ground of the 

 upper surface of the skin. The spiracles are black, the smooth naked 

 belly is of a green, rather less dark than that of the back ; the anterior 

 legs are black and shining, with light green joints on the outer side, 

 and light green inner surface ; the ventral and anal prolegs are of a 

 lighter green than that of the venter and semitransparent. 



Cocoon. — The cocoons are spun on stones, stems of juniper, and, 

 in fact, anything that occurs in their Alpine localities. They are 

 sometimes so abundant that we have seen as many as five cocoons 

 partly covering one another on one short piece of Vaccinium. They 

 vary much in size, but are usually about twice as long as wide ; they 

 are bluntly fusiform, swelling considerably at the centre and rounded 

 somewhat at each end. They are of a light greyish-yellow or pearly- 

 grey colour, somewhat smooth and lustrous, and so thin and delicate, 

 that after the pupa has left the cocoon, the latter is semi-transparent. 

 We have found them on Empetrum, Vaccinium, juniper and grasses, also 

 on the bare face of a rock. They are usually, however, placed near the 

 ground. 



Pupa. — The pupa usually only projects itself partly out of the 

 cocoon, although occasionally it emerges entirely before the moth 

 is disclosed. It varies in size, some of the male pupa3 being very 

 small, some of the female pupaa very large. It is very delicate and 

 easily injured, and somewhat stumpier than is usual among its con- 

 geners. Buckler says that it is " of the usual Anthrocerid form, with 

 long antenna- and leg-cases, free nearly their whole length ; the short 

 wing-covers, with nervures in strong relief, have their margins pro- 

 minent from the body. The abdomen tapers just towards the rounded- 

 off tip, and across the back of each segment anteriorly is a narrow ridge 

 thickly set with most minute hooks pointed backwards. The colour 

 is blackish-green on the abdomen, and all the other parts black and 

 with rather a dull surface." 



Food-plants. — Silene acaulis, Cherleria sedoides, Trifolium alpinum, 

 T. repens, T. pratense, Geum montanum, Sibbaldia [Azalea) procumbens 

 (flowers preferred, Frey), Alchemilla alpina, Medicago lupidinus, Bximex 

 acetosa, Lotus comiculatus (Buckler), Erica, Vaccinium, Polygomim 

 avicidare (White), Empetrum (Staudinger). 



Habits and habitat. — A sluggish species, flying only in the sun- 

 shine, and then booming along bee-like from flower to flower, and at 

 last settling on a flower motionless for a considerable time ; in dull 

 weather hiding low down among the roots of the herbage in its home, 

 and practically undiscoverable at this time. This Alpine and Arctic 

 species was added to the British list by Traill and Buchanan-White, 

 who, on July 17th, 1871, first captured specimens in the neighbour- 

 hood of Braemar, at an elevation of from 2,400 ft. to 2,600 ft. White 

 states that the locality is an ancient shore of a glacial sea. The 

 insects occurred in a grassy and rushy spot, sitting on flowers of 

 Gnaphalium dioicum. Tugwell records it from ground in the same 

 district, which is not grassy, but covered with crisp heath and dwarf 

 Azalea a few inches high, and grey with lichens. Maddison notes 

 that he has found it on rough banks, at high elevations in the deer 

 forest at Braemar. Home says that, in this locality, it frequents what 

 are called the "flats," i.e., the tops of a range of hills extending for 



