18 
and Petropolis.” The imago hides away in the day among the leaves 
and herbage beneath or near the lime trees, flies at night about the 
trees, and is best taken by sugaring the twigs of the trees. This 
species does not liybernate. It lays its eggs in the autumn, on the buds 
of the lime, and these hatch with the bursting of the buds in spring. 
They live at first in the buds, but the young larvae soon leave these (in 
early May) and may then be found between two flat leaves of lime, 
which have been fastened by silk, or otherwise the leaf is doubled over 
in part on itself. By standing under the trees so as to get the leaves 
between the eye and the sky, the young larvae may be readily detected. 
They come out to feed at night and can then be beaten. Mr. Fenn saj^s 
that they do not always hide between leaves, but go into crevices of 
bark, etc. This is now supposed to be a difference of habit due to 
a difference of age, the wandering habit increasing as the larvae get 
full-fed. The larva forms its cocoon in the first week of June, but 
does not pupate for nearly two months after doing so, the moth appear¬ 
ing in September or October. Captain Robertson states that Mr. 
Holland found a larva of this species feeding on “nut” ( Ent . Bee., i., 
p. 342). 
Citrago appears to occcur in almost all our English counties, and is 
so abundant in some Yorkshire localities, that one is astonished not to 
find records from Scotland. It occurs in Ireland, being recorded from 
county Wicklow. I have, however, never seen Irish specimens and 
cannot say if they differ from those obtained in England. Staudinger 
gives as the range of the species:—“ Central and Northern Europe 
(except Polar Region); Pyrenees; Piedmont; S. and E. Russia.” 
Xanthia aurago. —Although this sj)ecies is certainly not so closely 
allied to flavago, fulvago and gilvago as they are to each other, yet it is 
much more closely allied to them than to either of the species we have 
already considered. The different arrangement of the darker colour in 
the formation of bands gives a very different general appearance to 
this species, but the arrangement of the transverse lines, etc., closely 
approximates, and so it does in other particulars. Very few of us had 
any idea of the beautiful forms this species was capable of producing 
until Mrs. Bazett, Mr. Holland and other Reading lepidopterists 
supplied us freely with the species. It is a very variable species, 
much more so than any other of its congeners, the only other really 
variable Xanthia being fulvago. The palest form of the ground colour 
of this species is a clear primrose yellow, in some rather inclining to 
white. From this it passes through pale orange to a rich orange tint, 
richer and redder than the tint of croceago. I once saw one of the 
pale yellow specimens with scarcely the faintest trace of a dark mark. 
This was taken by Mr. Chittenden near Ashford in Kent, and I believe 
that no specimen of this form has ever been captured among the 
hundreds taken by the Reading collectors. Generally speaking, the 
ground colour is confined to the central area, the basal space and the 
outer area (beyond the elbowed line) being of a darker hue. This darker 
colour is generally red, but occasionally deep purple, the bands of either 
colour contrasting strongly when the ground colour is pale yellow, but the 
effect of the red becomes partially lost when the ground colour is of a rich 
orange tint. This is sometimes so far intensified that the whole wing 
area becomes unicolorous orange red, occasionally even unicolorous 
purple red. The type is the form with the central area pale yellow, 
