254 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. [December 



however, appear to be double-brooded, as I found several in fine 

 condition on the 14th and i6th of June. Thinking that these would 

 be the progenitors of a second brood, I refrained from taking more than 

 the few above noted. The first of this latter brood met with occurred 

 on August 4th, and the last seen was on the 27th. Although on some 

 of our finest and quietest evenings in August scarcely an individual 

 was seen, it did not hesitate to fly briskly in the full blaze of a hot sun. 

 A moderately dewy evening appears to draw this little moth out most 

 freely, and the evenings of last August were remarkable for an almost 

 total absence of dew" (''Entomologist," Vol. XX., p. 326). Mr. 

 Cambridge further writes:— "I obtained none in 1888, and only two 

 specimens in 1889" {in litt). 



Habitat — Stainton in the "Manual," Vol. II., p. 445, records this 

 species as occurring "in the fens of Cambridgeshire"; but, most of 

 the specimens captured of late years have come from the heathy bogs 

 in Dorsetshire where it is said to haunt the flowers of Northecium 

 ossifvagttm. The Rev. O. P. Cambridge writes: -"We were returning 

 home (Aug. 23rd), wearied with a long afternoon's fruitless search for 

 LyccBna nrgiades, and slowly tramping through a bog, often over ankle 

 deep in water, when my son Arthur called my attention to a little 

 plume moth, which he thought to be Ptevophorus hipunctidactylus — a very 

 common species of this group ; before I could get to the spot how- 

 ever, it had disappeared. Soon another was seen and captured, when 

 a single glance told me I had never seen the species before. A close 

 search followed, and several more were netted before darkness came 

 on. A reference to our books and collections on reaching home 

 informed us of the value of our find ; and almost every succeeding 

 evening, at all fitting in point of weather, found some or other of us 

 slowly and steadfastly working the bog until the whole brood was out 

 and over. So far as our experience goes, it scarcely ever moves of its 

 own accord until about half-an-hour, or often less, before sunset, and 

 for a very short time after ; indeed, of its own accord it was seldom 

 seen flying, generally not flying until disturbed, when it would flutt<^r 

 up gnat-like among the bog grass and rushes, and jerkily fly off, for, 

 at most, a few yards, settling again on a blade of grass, with its two 

 long-spurred hind legs stuck out, one on each side, in a very character- 

 istic way. On some evenings it would not fly at all ; the most 

 favourable kind of evening appeared to be a quiet, dewy, damp one, 



