THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



55 



Mr. Sydney Webb states that from observations he made on this species, 

 specimens of which he kept on plants established in his garden, he came to 

 the conclusion that it was " distinctly double-brooded," the first brood 

 appearing- as imagines " from the 3rd to 6th of July," whilst slowfeeders 

 sometimes did not emerge " till the end of the month." "At the end of 

 August," Mr. Webb further states, " pupae may again be found," and 

 the imagines from these appear in "the first week of September." I 

 have never seen this second brood myself, nor have I been in its locality 

 at the time it should occur. Mr. Webb adds : — " The eggs laid by these 

 produce young larvae, which hybernate upon the stems, and amongst the 

 downy young leaves at the top of the plant when about one-eighth of an 

 inch long. The parent deposits its eggs singly, placing them in one of 

 the natural depressions on the lower surface of a leaf. The time chosen 

 for this operation is in the waning evening light, just before dusk sets in."' 



Habitat — The food plant of this species is local in Britain, and the 

 area of distribution of the species is limited. Almost all our specimens 

 come from the Isle of Wight, where it abounds in certain localities, but 

 Messrs. Nelson Richardson and Eustace Bankes take the insect in the Isle 

 of Purbeck, and Mr. Sydney Webb has (I believe) reported it from Kent. 

 At Freshwater, it is found on plants which grow on the most exposed 

 situations on the Downs, as well as on those growing at the foot of the 

 Downs and sheltered both by the Downs and the hedgerows. Wocke 

 gives as its area of distribution: — "England, France, Germany, Italy, 

 Spain, Southern and Eastern Russia, Greece'"' (" Catalog," p. 344) ; so 

 that it is quite a Southern species and illustrates the fact that many of the 

 species more or less confined to the Mediterranean littoral appear on the 

 southern shores of Britain. 



Aciptilia galactodactyla. — In our own Southern counties this is cer- 

 tainly one of the commonest plumes, and is, perhaps, more frequently 

 bred than any other species in Britain. 



Synonymy— Galactodactyla^ Hb., 2; Tr., IX., 2, 250; Ev., 'Faun. Vol. 

 Ural./ 609 ; Haw., ' Lep. Brit.,' 475 ; Stphs., ' 111.,' IV., 371 ; Zell, ' Isis ' 

 (1841), 857, PI. 4, 35 ; ' Linn. Ent. Zeit.,' VI., 390 ; H.-S., V., p. 384. This 

 very distinct .species appears to have had no synonyms, indeed it would 

 have been strange if so distinct a species, inhabiting as it does those parts 

 of the Continent where collectors most do congregate, had received any 

 other names, although it must be confessed that Hiibner's type figure, 

 good as it may have been when first drawn, is now of an unicolorous 

 blackish-grey through the oxidation of the paint. 



Imago — Ground colour pure sheeny white ; the four wings divided 

 into two lobes by a deep fissure ; both lobes acute, the lower somewhat 

 falcate. The markings in galactodactyla are much fewer than those in 

 spilodaclj'ta, but those that are present agree in position with similar 

 ones in the latter species. The angulated fascia at the fissure consists 



