562 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



around the lantern on Wicken Fen, on a really good night for "light," 

 is a sight to be remembered. Fletcher's note (antea, pp. 552-553) shows 

 that the same habit is fully developed on the shores of the Pacific, and 

 that the females also may be attracted, a fact rarely (if ever) observed 

 in this country. Gatke has pointed out that this species migrates 

 in amazing numbers, and that on some nights thousands of ex- 

 amples fly around and past the lighthouses at Heligoland, when 

 they are evidently on passage. The imagines rest by day on 

 trees and walls, and fly by night about 9 p.m., in Belgium 

 (Lambillion) ; a male, at Bainham, on a " sugared " tree, not 

 at the sugar, July 21st, 1894 (Burrows) ; a male picked up on a 

 grass stem, at Sandown, July 21st, 1896 (Prout) ; common at electric 

 light, at Taunton (Tetley) ; very abundant at the electric light, in 

 1896, at Aix-les-Bains (Agassiz) ; males "assembled" at Whitwell, 

 August 5th, 1898 (Freeman). As for its habitat one might say 

 " everywhere," were it not for the marvellously sudden break that 

 occurs in England and Ireland, excluding it from the northern counties 

 of England, the whole of Scotland, and the north of Ireland, although 

 it abounds in almost similar districts a few miles to the south or west. 

 This sudden break in distribution is quite paralleled in Switzerland, 

 where Frey says that it occurs everywhere in the lower parts of the 

 country, but rarely extends to any elevation, and is scarcely ever found 

 in the lower Alps, and although Taschler notes it in the sub-alpine 

 region of St. Gallen, and Batzer as occurring above 5000ft. in the 

 Gadmenthal, still it is usually rare at moderate elevations. Hormuzaki, 

 too, observes that whilst the insect is abundant in the lower parts of 

 Bucovina, it is exceedingly rare in the mountains. In the southern 

 counties of England it is very abundant, especially in certain years, by 

 hedgerows, in woods, in fruit orchards, on stunted bushes on downs 

 and cliffs by the seashore. Our notes as to the habitats affected by the 

 species read — on hedges and fruit-trees in gardens, the webs con- 

 spicuous, in Gloucestershire (Merrin) ; destructive to the foliage of the 

 apple trees, at Sudbury (Bansom) ; chiefly affects hedgerows of black- 

 thorn and whitethorn, and woods, in Berks, Hants, and Oxon (Clarke); 

 in Surrey very abundant on the fruit-trees in the gardens (Kaye) ; 

 very abundant on the blackthorn bushes growing on the cliffs outside 

 the forts at Milford Haven, in May, 1897, there were hundreds of 

 nests (Bobertson); on rough ground by the sea, at Eastbourne (Bower); 

 at Sandown, on sallow, close to the shore (Prout) ; affects the crab- 

 apple trees on the chalkhills at Emsworth, and at Oxford the hawthorn 

 by the side of the canal (Christy) ; the full-grown larva?, old webs, and 

 cast skins, abundant on blackberry bushes in different parts of Herm, 

 although the insect has only once been seen in Guernsey (Luff) ; on 

 whitethorn hedges at Angmering (Dollman) ; hedgerows at Ealing and 

 Uxbridge, bushes bordering dykes, at Pevensey (Montgomery) ; on 

 oak and apple trees at Clevedon (Mason) ; on plum and apple trees, at 

 Birchwood, and the sallow bushes in Wicken Fen (Carr) ; larva? very 

 abundant in the Zurich district on fruit-trees, sloe, and oak, but the 

 imagines are exceedingly rare, only two or three being seen (Biihl) ; 

 abundant on hedges and on commons in the Weald of Sussex (Nichol- 

 son) ; never observed out of gardens in the Baltic provinces, except in 

 the woods of Oesel, where the larva feeds on the wild apple trees 

 (Nolcken) ; shows a great preference for standard rose trees, one small 



