234 
CONTENT. 
EREBUS ODORA. 
Tiiat fine insect, Erebus odor a, one of the largest 
of Moths, frequently attaining an expanse of wing of 
seven inches, is not uncommon in certain localities. 
It occasionally flies into the house at night, and I 
have sometimes found it resting with horizontally 
expanded wings against a wall under a piazza, or in 
the angle formed by a rafter, during the day. But it 
is in the deep and sombre woods that we chiefly see 
this flne Moth. I know several gloomy glens, where 
the tall trees nearly shut out the rays of the sun, in 
which I could be pretty sure to rouse one or more, on 
any day in July or August. A large log or fallen 
trunk lying on the ground in the woods, will often 
harbour one on its under side ; in the angle formed 
by the buttress-like roots of a Cotton-tree, we may 
see one resting ; or even against the dark trunk of 
some rough-barked tree, without any shelter or con- 
cealment, except the resemblance of its own colours, 
variegations of brown and grey, to the lichened and 
weather-stained surface on which it rests motionless. 
It is easily alarmed ; and then usually dances to and 
fro, on rapid wing, without leaving the sight ; and 
suddenly alights on a similar spot to that from which 
it rose ; often the very same corner. These habits of 
frequenting the dark woods, of suddenly alighting on 
a tree without hovering, and of resting on a dark 
surface with horizontal wings, so as to be with 
difficulty found even though watched to the resting- 
place, are almost exactly those of the Catocalce^ near 
