104 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



which he considers to result entirely from the sense of smell. 

 Wonfor records (M. Micr. J., vi., pp. 251 — 252) that $ Z. var callunae 

 in Jersey will assemble typical $ . L. quercus ; Thomhill records 

 a similar fact (see anted, p. 77), which is interesting in the face of 

 Harding's statement (Zool., v., p. 1 73 1 ), that ? catlunae would not 

 attract $ quercus. This, however, is less remarkable than John- 

 son's observation (Int., ix., p. 62) of a $ quercus being attracted 

 by a virgin $ Pachygastria trifolii in Jersey i,see also Zeller, 

 anted,, p. 41). Bacot observes that if pairing is going to take 

 place the male is usually much excited as soon as he is 

 placed with the female, and copulation generally takes place at 

 once; the moths do not remain paired more than 15 minutes, 

 often less ; a male has been known to pair with two females ,in 

 quick succession, whilst Poskin,in 1898, observes {Rev.S0c.E1it. Namur., 

 hi., p. 22) that he had four newly-emerged 2 s in his laboratory at 

 Gembloux, when, soon after midday, a $ flew against the window, 

 and which, being admitted, at once paired with the first female it met ; 

 the copulation lasted about a quarter of an hour ; immediately 

 after separation, the $ paired with a second $ , and then with a 

 third, after which the $ tried to escape. Riihl says that the male 

 flies by day in the Zurich district, whilst the $ is often beaten from 

 bushes in July. The female oviposits when flying at dusk. We 

 have taken it between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. at Strood flying along hedge- 

 rows, and Ford notes one netted at night in 1891 at Hastings, which 

 ejected more than 100 ova (see also anted, p. 87). Jones re- 

 cords the capture of two females at light at Eltham (anted, p. 41); 

 Dewey observed them in abundance at electric light at East- 

 bourne, and Lowe records specimens coming up to the light at Aigle, 

 July3rd-4th, 1898; a male was captured at light at Salisbury in July, 1896, 

 by Ridley, and Fenn captured a $ at light on July 17th, 1875, at 

 Eltham. Bevis notes that on April 8th, -1883, between Siena and 

 Monastero, he saw a male with a dry piece of blackthorn that had 

 become attached to it by means of a thorn that had passed 

 through its abdomen. It had evidently become entangled and 

 broken ofT the piece which had lacerated its wings as well as 

 abdomen, and, when observed, it was making a noise like a grass- 

 hopper on the wing. Barrett notes (E.M.M., iii., p. 259) that, in 

 August, 1866, he observed scores of males of this species trying to 

 fly over the crest of the hill crowning Hindhead, while the wind, 

 which was very powerful, constantly drove them back ; they 

 would come beating and tacking up the side of the hill, often 

 dashing into the heath and getting up again, until they got fairly 

 on the edge, when the wind would carry them back hundreds of 

 yards and hurl them into the valley below, when the same per- 

 formance would be gone through again. So numerous were they 

 that though the wind made a perfect plaything of the net, over thirty 

 were caught in an hour. Reid notes that in Aberdeenshire the 

 imagines are destroyed in great numbers by "the black-headed gulls." 

 Hedges, lanes, outskirts of woods, coast sandhills, sea -cliffs and 

 downs are the chief habitats of typical L. quercus, as moorlands 

 are the chief home of L. var. callunae, which is, in this country, 

 indeed, a moorland rather than a mountain race, although its 

 most marked characteristics are more strongly developed on the 



