544 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



be rarely ichneumoned, but once they have pupated the sea-birds prey 

 on them, although the cocoons are usually cleverly hidden in the low 

 herbage. 



Time of appearance. — The imago is generally bred from the 

 middle of July until the third week in August, although Walker notes 

 that in confinement the bulk of the specimens appear during the third 

 week of July. In July, in Belgium (Selys) ; in June and July, in 

 Transcaucasia (Romanoff); in France, in July and August (Oberthur), 

 but Guenee gives May and June for the Eure-et-Loir district, although 

 Dupont took it at Pont de l'Arche on July 10th, 1892, whilst Sand 

 mentions June 28th-July 15th, for the Auvergne district, and Milliere 

 August 2nd, 1875, on the Pic de l'Aigle. Fritsch gives it as appearing 

 in the Vienna district from June 26th-July 28th, and Jordan took it 

 in the first week in July, 1878, in the Visp valley, Frey gives July 

 and August, for Switzerland, Caradja says that the larvae occur in May 

 and June and the imagines in July and August, in Roumania, and 

 Reutti gives exactly the same dates for Baden. Staudinger notes 

 that in the Caraman district the earliest emergence took place on 

 July 6th, but specimens continued to appear until August 8th, 1875, 

 whilst in the Kentei mountains the larvae were very abundant 

 at the commencement of July. Ingall notes that the bulk of the 

 emergences in 1856, took place between July 30th and August 3rd, 

 although some imagines appeared in September. Whittle observes that 

 in 1889, larva? were taken at Shoeburyness until July 30th, in 1890 none 

 were seen after July 19th, in 1893, larvae were found almost fully 

 grown by June. 2nd, although broods of young larvae were still 

 common ; broods of quite young larvae were taken on June 14th, in 

 1897. In 1893, larvae in the second stadium, were found near 

 Southend, as early as April 17th, by Battley. The best time to obtain 

 the larvae varies with the season. Larvae were first found in England at 

 the beginning of May, 1827, in an island on the Essex coast, called New 

 England, and others occurred in the beginning of July, 1828 ; these latter 

 larvae pupated about the middle of July, the pupae producing imagines 

 between August 10th-22nd (Parsons teste Curtis) ; June 6th and July 23rd- 

 30th, 1842, large numbers of larvae in the Isle of Sheppey, from which 

 60 $ s and 35 $ s were bred, as well as a gynandromorphous example 

 on August 7th, larvae again taken at Queenborough, July llth-12th, 1845, 

 commenced to spin up July 17th, although others were still feeding on 

 July 31st ; from July 3rd-5th, 1856, at Queenborough, the larvae were in 

 amazing numbers, principally full-fed, they were crawling in such 

 profusion that one could scarcely walk without treading on them, by 

 July 12th, they were spinning up fast, and 200 had already pupated, 

 and imagines emerged from July 30th-August 17th, altogether some 

 340 were set — 114 males, and 225 females (Ingall) ; some six dozen 

 larvae found near Gravesend, in June, 1860 (Fisher) ; larvae near Graves- 

 end, July 13th, 1866 (Miller) ; July 13th, 1866, larvae at Gravesend, 

 imagines bred August 7th-9th, 1890, others bred August 19th-29th, 1891, 

 July 28th-August 14th, 1892, all from Leigh (Fenn) ; larvae already 

 separated on May 29th, 1869, and full-grown, sitting upon the weeds, 

 on June 19th, at Meseritz, in Posen (Zeller) ; larvae on July 10th, 

 1869, were found in various stages of growth below Gravesend, some 

 quite small, others full-fed, on June 3rd, 1871, hundreds in a field in 

 Cliffe marshes (A. H. Jones); larvae full-fed July 1st, 1871, on Graves- 



