PoRRiTT : The British Pyrales. 



87 



collecting expedition during tlie summer. They may be noticed in 

 numbers sitting in a triangular position on trunks of trees in woods, 

 on bard rocks on tbe clilfs, on stones &c., on mountain sides, and in 

 fact in almost all conceivable situations. They have, however, a very 

 awkward habit of starting off directly one comes near them, when 

 they fly with a quick jerking flight, and take a similar position a few 

 yards away, to repeat exactly the same performance, though even 

 more warily when you come up with them. Common as they are, the 

 group is a most neglected one, indeed very few lepidopterists seem to 

 take any real interest in it, or to study the species systematically. 

 Several reasons may account for this. In the first place there is a 

 great similarity between the species, which makes it intensely difficult 

 to determine them at first, though this wears off when we get accus- 

 tomed to them. In the next place, captured specimens are often very 

 worn, or if fresh, must be killed and pinned at once, or they will make 

 themselves altogether unrecognizable in a very short time after being 

 shut up in a pill-box, so that, if difficult to determine when fresh, 

 they are tenfold so when in bad condition. Their somewhat obscure, 

 dingy appearance, too, doubtless deters many from taking as much 

 interest in them as they otherwise would. Seven of the species occur 

 with us, viz., ambiffMalis, cembralis, pyralalisj muralis, mercuralis, 

 truncicolalis, coarctalis. Besides these I am not sure that we have 

 not basistrigalis, and perhaps scotica. In my series of ambigualis 

 taken here, Mr. J. T. Carrington (the recently appointed Editor 

 of the " Entomologist ") picked out two specimens which he 

 said were basistrigalis^ and as such they have since stood in 

 my cabinet ; I however do not know the species sufficiently 

 well to judge. I hope they may be right. Ambigualis is a 

 a most abundant moth in our woods, and pyralalis occurs in similar 

 situations. Cembralis swarmed in my garden in July and August 

 last ; muralis is common enough about old walls, as indeed is trunci- 

 colalis also ; mercuralis turns up on trunks of trees, &c. ; whilst 

 coarctalis seems partial to our hilly moorland districts, and is not 

 uncommon in such situations, as at Marsden. Basistrigalis is a com- 

 paratively recent addition to our list, and was first brought forward 

 as a distinct species by Dr. Knaggs ; it is said to be common about 

 Eannoch, and has doubtless been overlooked in many localities. 

 Zelleri is perhaps the largest species in the . group, generally being a 

 little bigger than cembralis, to which I believe it bears some resem- 

 blance; it was added to the list in 1867 on the authority of a 

 specimen taken by Mr. Pryor at Norwood Junction, August 17th 



