19 
and the basal and outer areas reddish-purple ; the corresponding form, 
with the central area pale orange, is called virgata, whilst that with 
the central area of a rich orange red is the rutUago of Fabricius. The 
unicolorous pale yellow form is known as lutea, whilst the unicolorous 
rich purplish red form is the fucata of Esper. One other beautiful form 
has the orange central area very much mottled. Mr. Holland says of 
this species :—“ An occasional imago falls to the beating-stick, but the 
great majority seem to be hidden in the herbage and leaves below. At 
dark they will be found to have come to the top of the grasses and 
other plants, or feeding on the blackberries, but, like fulvago and fla- 
vago, they take wing at once on some evenings. Sugared twigs, how¬ 
ever, will generally stop them. Books say the larvae hide in the chinks 
of the bark; I have never been able to find them, and I must say for 
larvae having that habit they are most unfortunate in feeding on a tree 
the bark of which is as smooth as a telegraph pole.” 
I know nothing of the egg-laying of this species, but Newman states 
that the larva feeds on “birch ( Fagus sylvatica )” an evident printer’s 
error for “ beech.” The egg is, according to the Bev. J. Hellins ( Ent. 
Mo. Mag., vi., p. 222), laid in September, and hatches in March or 
April. He further states that, unlike many that hybernate in the ova 
state, but in which the larva is fully developed in the autumn, the egg 
of anrago has been examined from time to time up to the middle of 
January, without anything but the faintest traces of the future larvee 
having been detected by microscopic examination of their still fluid 
contents, but that at the last examination—about January 14th—the 
larva of X. aurago was found partially developed, but not to such a 
degree that it could be extracted from the shell in the larval form. 
Mr. Machin records finding a larva on Spircea filipendula, from which 
he bred a fine' dark imago. 
Aurago is very local in Britain, Kent (neighbourhood of Wye and 
Ashford) and near Reading being its head quarters. It is also recorded 
from Llangollen, and Mr. Birchall recorded it as taken in Ireland by 
Mr. Haughton, although the locality was unknown. It has not been 
recorded from Scotland or the northern counties of England, so that its 
range is comparatively restricted. Staudinger gives as its range on the 
Continent.—“ Central Europe (except Livonia); S. Sweden; Denmark ; 
Piedmont; Etruria; Corsica.” 
Xanthia fulvago, Linn.—This species has always been one of those 
in which I have interested myself, and cerago as we frequently call it, 
is likely to attract attention, not only from its j3retty tints and the 
variability of their arrangement, but from the fact that it is a sjDecies 
widely distributed in Britain and, if searched for, likely to be captured 
by most collectors themselves. The ground colour varies from a pale 
yellow, almost approaching white, through a clear citron yellow to a 
decided orange (much the same tint as we find in flavago). Essentially 
these may be classified under two heads—the pale yellow and the 
orange yellow. The transverse lines and markings are of a red colour 
but occasionally they become strongly purple (in the Brit. Noct. and 
their Vars., iii., p. 10, line 13, “yellow” is a misprint for “pmqfle”) 
whilst frequently they are altogether obsolete. Some localities, as may 
be expected, are more prone to produce variation in certain directions 
than are others, and we find that whilst certain localities give a very 
large percentage of obsoletely marked specimens, others yield none, 
