POECILOCAMPA POPULI. 475 



marked, but not conspicuous ; at the base of each antenna is a pro- 

 minent projecting papilla. The abdominal segments maintain the 

 ridged or hooped condition noticeable dorsally, each segment being 

 composed of a smooth dull raised posterior band, and a slightly 

 depressed shiny anterior one ; the dull portion, although beyond the 

 movable area, forms a part of the movable incision ; the abdominal 

 segments 7 to anal segment are entirely shiny. The genital organs 

 and anus well marked. Laterally : The antennal papilla, the glazed 

 eye, and prothoracic spiracle more distinct from this point of view. 

 The wings shiny, dark red-brown, the neuration not conspicuous, the 

 base of the fore wing swollen ; Poulton's line is present as a transverse 

 depression parallel to the hind margin ; the hindwing extending only 

 just a short distance along the inner margin of fore wing, terminating 

 at the incision between the 2nd and 3rd abdominal segments. The 

 spiracles on abdominal segments 2-8 distinct, each forming a double 

 convex depression, with a well-defined narrow rim ; there is a slight 

 subspiracular depression ; the cremaster blunt ; the cremastral hairs 

 numerous and prominent. [Described November 18th, 1897, from 

 pupae sent by Mr. Head.] Borkhausen says : " Die Chrysalide ist 

 sehr kurz gestaltet und ziemlich gerundet. Anfangs ist sie grim und 

 wird hernach dunkelbraun." Fenn notes the pupa as " very stout 

 and rounded, the anal extremity with a rough pubescence ; spiracles 

 prominent ; red-brown wing-cases, not shining ; enclosed in a hard 

 papery oval cocoon of blackish or dark earth-coloured silk, spun in 

 crevices of bark, &c." 



Parasites. — Apanteles difficilis, Nees (bred by Kobson teste Bignell). 

 Hemiteles areator (bred by Bower teste Bignell). 



Food-plants. — Papains, Corylus, Mains, Pyrus (Linne), oak, lime, 

 birch, whitethorn, wild rose (Borkhausen), aspen, fruit trees (Stephens), 

 apple, sycamore and almost every forest tree, lettuce (Studd), alder 

 (White), elm (Porritt), ash, willow (Raynor), sallow (A. H. Jones), 

 crab apple (Prout), beech (Whittle), plum (Kretschmer), Pinns larix 

 (Frey), larch — five larvae all belonging to the least brightly marked 

 form, i.e., pale ash-grey dorsally, found at beginning of August, 1876, 

 at Trafoi, produced normal imagines (Wocke), cherry (Wullschlegel), 

 maple (Bankes), horsechestnut (Daws). 



Habits and Habitat. — The habits of the imagines are but little known, 

 most of the specimens in our collections having been either bred or captured 

 at light. Reid notes that in Scotland the insect prefers open woods ; the 

 males sometimes fly by day, but mostly at night and are readily attracted 

 by light. Barrett says the males fly from 10 p.m. till midnight, and that 

 the $ certainly flies late at night. Butterfield has found imagines by 

 day resting on oak trunks in November in the Keighley district. 

 Grover has found them also on oak trunks near Guildford, and Smith 

 on birch trunks at Bramham. The insect, too, is uncertain in its 

 appearance — at Bristol very common some years, in others not seen 

 (Bartlett), exceedingly common in 1896 but rare in 1897 in Gloucester 

 district (Merrin), unusually abundant in 1891 in the Zurich district 

 (Riihl), very common at Salisbury in 1898 (Ridley). Pitman says that at 

 Norwich in 1891 and 1895 the larva? were in great abundance in spring, 

 and in the late autumn dozens of the imagines were attracted to light, but 

 none have been seen since. Studd notes it as exceedingly abundant at 

 light in 1897, when Asterusc(>i>nsxi>h in.v and other contemporaneous moths 



