238 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



found on board ship when off the coast of Malta as early as April 

 14th, and he further states that they were seen flying around the 

 electric lights of the ship off Cyprus, Corfu and Crete in June, 1898, 

 whenever the lights were burning. He states that the imagines are evi- 

 dently on the move for a considerable time during the night for he has 

 seen them flying to the electric light from soon after sunset until 

 past midnight, whilst by day, in Malta, they may be seen occasionally 

 resting on walls and posts, but most of them probably hide under stones 

 in the stone-walls ; very abundant at light at Aix-les-Bains, in July, 

 1896 (Agassiz), common at electric light at Davos-Platz, &c. (Sellon), 

 at electric light at Berne, June 21st, 1893 (Hiltbold), also in 

 August from 1 893-1 895 at Zurich (Nageli), at electric light, July 3rd- 

 4th, 1898, at Aigle, from 9.15 p.m. -10. 20 p.m. (larvae occurring 

 in all stages at same time in the district) (Lowe), also at Zermatt, 

 from August i^th-igth, 1898 (Jones), Steinert says that H. euphorbiae 

 (like Hyloicus pinastri, Eumo7pha eipenor and Theretra porcellus) 

 sometimes comes to sugar (Iris, v., p. 397). 



Habitat. — Much doubt still exists as to whether this species has 

 ever been really indigenous in Britain. Raddon, as we have already 

 noted, records (Ent. Mag., ii., pp. 535-536) that, from 1806-1819, he 

 took many larvae on the sandhills at Braunton and Appledore, which 

 pupated in due course, and imagines from which are to be found 

 in British cabinets, whilst Fry has stated that, in August, 188.9, 

 he took 18 or 19 larvae in a little sandy bay at the foot of the 

 cliff, about 2 miles away from Newquay, in Cornwall (Ent., xxvi., 

 pp. 315-316). More evidence is required as to the iarva? reported 

 as taken on the coast near Harwich in June, 1872 (Ent., vii., p. 46; 

 ix., p. 263). The species has no other standing in the British 

 fauna, except for odd examples taken here and there in different 

 parts of the country, evident wanderers from the continent or escapes 

 from confinement"' (hundreds of imagines have been for three-quarters 

 of a century annually reared from pupae in Britain), and which have no 

 real bearing on the scientific aspects of "habitat" or "distribution.'' 

 Abroad, where the species sometimes swarms, its habitats are ex- 

 ceedingly varied. From the sea-level on either side of the Medi- 

 terranean coast, and the shores of the Atlantic as far north as 

 Brittany, Holland and Denmark, the species spreads inland, being 

 particularly abundant in warm valleys of the Pyrenees and the Alps of 

 central Europe to a considerable elevation. It extends to the east 

 well into Asia, occurring on the arid sandy steppes of the Ural 

 district, Persia, and Turkestan, whilst, in the Kouldja district, it is 

 said to be abundant in gardens throughout the whole of the summer. 

 Harrison says that, on the coast sandhills of Brittany {e.g., at Le 

 Poldif;, it is exceedingly common, whilst Oberthiir notes that in La 

 Manche, Ille-et-Vilaine, and C6tes-du-Nord the species is abundant 

 in, but never found outside of, the maritime zone, abounding in some 

 places on the sandhills quite elose to the sea, but it also goes up 

 the rivers, e.g., the banks of the Loire between Blois and Lance's 



* Sec Ent. AV<\, xv., p 67. We ourselves have frequently set free imagines 

 of rare species, reared from foreign pupae for which we had no further use. Iwo 

 living examples of //. euphorbiae have come into our own hands; we have no 



doubt that these were "escapes." 



