176 
This species of geometer is one of the rarest in Great 
Britain, and tlie following notes upon it may be of interest 
to the members of our Society. 
Acidalia Contiguaria was, I believe, first captured by the 
late Mr. Weaver, on the road between Conway and Pen- 
maenmaur, about the year 1840. I have in my possession 
one of the original specimens; it has since then been met with 
occasionally, always in the same district, a little East or 
W est of Conway. The larva is supposed to seed on Empetrum 
nigrum. Mr. Greening, of Warrington, has, I believe, reared 
the moth from larvae, but I have seen no specimen nor any 
record, although several friends of mine have specimens in 
their cabinets, supplied by him. 
During my stay at Llandudno last summer on account of 
health, my friend Mr. Capper, of Liverpool, went over many 
times to the hills about Conway, and succeeded in finding a 
few specimens of Acidalia Contiguaria, some of which he 
brought to me in a living state ; one of the moths laid a few 
eggs on the 16th of July. The larvae appeared on the 22nd; 
they were very small, so as to be scarcely visible without a 
magnifying glass. Not being able to procure Empetrum 
nigrum, I put into a small bottle of water in the box or 
cage sprigs of Erica cinerea and Polygonum aviculare, both 
of which they appeared to eat ; as the latter was more easily 
procurable, they were fed chiefly upon it, although I supplied 
them with Erica when practicable. The larvae varied con- 
siderably in colour, from an ochre brown to grey. On 
the 22nd of August, just one month from their being 
hatched, some of them began to spin their cocoons ; these 
were formed of very loose silk mixed with small grains of 
peat, with which I had furnished them, and were fastened 
in the angles of the small cage. The first moth emerged 
from pupa on the 9th of September, and of the 8 or 9 that 
had spun up, most of them had become moths by the end of 
the month. The remainder of the larvae are still in the larva 
