THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



17 



appears to be confined to Hungary. They 

 are easily distinguished from each other in 

 either sex, and the following tables of the 

 British species — the first of which is chiefly 

 copied from Stainton — may be useful :— 

 Males. 



A. F.W. brown H rupicapraria. 



B. F.W. whitish, with grey-brown mark- 

 ings; central portion whitish, basal and 

 outer portions black or blackish 



H. leucopTiearia. 



C. F.W. ochreous. 



a. First line much angulated 



H. defoliaria. 



b. First line nearly straight. 



1. Hind wings whitish, H progemmaria. 



2. „ tinted with pale orange, 



R aurantiaria. 



Females. 



A. Apterous H. defoliaria. 



B. Wings quite rudimentary H leucopTiearia 



C. Wings short and narrow. 



a. Orange H. aurantiaria. 



b. Brown ; hind margin straight ; a dark- 

 er central band H. rupicapraria. 



D. Wings of considerable size, marked as 



in the male H. progemmaria. 



I would refer readers to Vol. ii., page 29, 

 for a table comparing these with the females 

 of the winter moths of other genera. 



RUPICAPRARIA. 

 Tlie Early Moth. 

 The insect emerges at the very beginning 

 of January, and may be met with till March 

 is far advanced. The male is much attrac- 

 ted by light, and may be met with in some 

 numbers on the lamps in country places or 

 the suburbs of towns where sloe or white- 

 thorn hedges abound. It does not appear 

 to fly very early, and I have found it most 

 abundant about midnight. It seeks the 

 best shelter it can to pass the day, and I 

 have found it on the underside of fallen 

 trees, stray railway sleepers, and even under 

 stones. It may also be taken with the net 

 as it flies about the tops of the leafless 



hedges. The female hides during the day 

 at the roots of the hedges, and towards 

 midnight crawls up and along the branches. 

 On a suitable night they may be found 

 hanging at the very tip of a twig. I have 

 seen no observations as to their ability to 

 withstand cold, but I am of opinion that 

 severe frost merely makes them seek shelter 

 and become torpid. I have found the males 

 abundant before a severe frost, noticed their 

 entire disappearance during its prevalence, 

 and seen them as abundant as before the very 

 first night after it had broken, and while 

 the ground was not yet cleared of snow, or 

 too sodden to allow their safe emergence 

 from pupa. 



The imago has rather dark fore wings, so 

 slightly scaled that they look quite trans- 

 parent as they sit on the glass of a lighted 

 lamp, and a beginner might imagine them 

 too much worn to be worth taking. The 

 lines are darker than the ground colour and 

 there is a very distinct spot at the disc. 

 One variety has been named — lbicaria f 

 H.S. — which, according to Staudinger, is 

 more obscurely marked than the type. I 

 have never seen the form, which the same 

 authority states occurs in France, &c. It is 

 the var. Nigricaria of Haworth. 



The larva is green or brown, with numer- 

 ous longitudinal whitish or yellowish lines. 

 It is a very variable larva. The segments 

 are generally very distinctly marked with 

 dark on the upper portion and the division 

 at the sides yellowish. In some the dorsal 

 region seems marked off into squares alter- 

 nating with the ground colour and a darker 

 shade, the lines being visible throughout. 

 It feeds on Sloe and Whitethorn, and is 

 full-fed in June, when it crawls down the 

 stem, and changes to pupa in a web spun 

 among the fallen leaves at the bottom. 



LEUCOPHEARIA. 

 The Spring Usher. 

 This species does not emerge so early as 



