hedgerows. Females taken late in the spring and enclosed in a chip box will probably deposit a good supply of eggs; caterpillars hatching from them are not difficult to rear.

The species does not appear to have been noticed in the eastern or northern counties of England, but it occurs from Worcester southwards to Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. From Herefordshire it spreads into Wales. North of London it is found in Hertfordshire, Middlesex, and to the south in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire.

It is represented in Japan by sericea, Butler, which is considered a distinct species by some authors.

The Red-headed Chestnut (Orrhodia (Conistra) erythrocephala).

The portraits of this species on Plate 11 are from Austrian specimens. Fig. 1 is typical and Fig. 2 is ab. glabra, Hübner.

A specimen was captured at Marlow, Bucks, in October, 1859, by Mr. A. H. Clarke, who presented it to the British Museum in 1903; but perhaps the earliest-known British specimen was one taken near Brighton in 1847. Between the

last-named Sussex locality and Eastbourne in one direction, and Lewes in the other, one or more specimens of the type or of ab. glabra have occurred from time to time, but there are no records from the county for a number of years now. The species has also been noted from Hampshire (New Forest and Bournemouth), Somerset, Devon, Kent (Darenth), and Hertfordshire (St. Albans). The most recent records refer to two captures at Bournemouth in 1902.

The Chestnut (Orrhodia (Conistra) vaccinii).

Figure 3 on Plate 11 represents this species in its typical form, which is of a dark chestnut colour, and almost without markings. The brighter red modification of this form has been named ab. rufa, Tutt; while another assuming the blacker hue of O. ligula has been described as ab. unicolor, Tutt. In some of the redder forms the cross lines are dark and conspicuous, thus approaching ab. spadicea, Hübner, which has distinct black lines as seen in Fig. 6. It should be noted that the figure just referred to is from a German specimen, as I was unable to obtain a suitable British example of the form. Another far more frequent form of this variable species is ab. mixta, Staud. (Fig. 4), in which the ground colour is ochreous, more or less tinged with red; the more yellow-coloured examples of this form have been separated under the name ochrea, Tutt. Figure 5 shows a form that is rather less common than either of those just adverted to; the specimen is one of a short series from Kent that I have labelled ab. suffusa, Tutt; as will be noticed, the band on the outer area is in strong contrast to the rest of the fore wings. Apart from the above and other named forms, there is considerable aberration in the markings, and more especially as regards the stigmata. The lower extremity of the reniform is usually black or blackish, but it may be very faint or entirely absent, and as a contrast

to this, the orbicular sometimes has a blackish dot at its lower end.

The caterpillar feeds, in May and June, on oak, elm, etc., and also upon low-growing plants. It is reddish brown above, and greenish beneath, sometimes the upper surface is tinged with green also; the back is freckled with pale brown, and the three lines along it are faintly paler, the raised dots are whitish; head, glossy pale brown, freckled with reddish-brown, and lined with darker brown.

The moth occurs at sugar, ivy bloom, etc., in the autumn and early winter, also at sallow catkins in the spring, in probably almost all wooded localities throughout the British Isles.

Its range abroad extends to Japan.

The Dark Chestnut (Orrhodia (Conistra) ligula).

Four examples of this species are shown on Plate 11. The typical form has a white band on the outer area of the fore wings (Fig. 7); sometimes this band is ochreous (ab. subnigra, Haworth), and a modification of this, in which the outlines of the stigmata and the veins are pale, is var. ochrea, Tutt. Ab. polita, Hübner (Fig. 9), has a whitish-grey submarginal band and greyish cross lines, and ab. spadicea, Haworth (Fig. 10), is a dark form without any distinct markings. This species has long been incorrectly known as spadicea, Hübner, which, as noted above, is a form of vaccinii, L. Staudinger, probably to prevent confusion, deposed spadicea, Haworth, and set up subspadicea in its place.

Fig. 8 represents a specimen from North Kent that somewhat suggests ab. suffusa, Tutt, of the previous species. On comparing the outer marginal contour of the fore wings of these closely allied species, it will be noted that in all forms of ligula the margin below the tip is always slightly concave, thus giving

the wings a decidedly pointed tip, a character which will serve to distinguish ligula from vaccinii in nearly every instance.

The caterpillar is reddish brown, freckled with paler; the three pale lines along the back are distinctly white on the plate on ring 1, the outer lines edged below with brownish; spiracles outlined in black, and the stripe along them is reddish ochreous. It feeds in spring and early summer, at first on oak, sallow, and hawthorn, and afterwards on low-growing weeds.

The moth flies in October and November, and as it lives through the winter is seen at sugar on any mild night, but it does not seem to turn up at the sallow catkins in the spring. The species is rather less generally distributed than the last, but it is not uncommon in the southern and eastern counties, and is found throughout England to the Tyne. Recorded from very few localities in Ireland, and apparently not noticed in Scotland.

The Dotted Chestnut (Orrhodia (Dasycampa) rubiginea).

A pair of typical specimens are represented on Plate 11, Figs. 11 and 12. A form of the species occurring in Somersetshire has the fore wings reddish brown, and the usual black dots are largely absent (ab. unicolor, Tutt).

The caterpillar (Plate 6, Fig. 2) is purplish brown freckled with blackish; there are three obscure paler lines along the back from ring 3, and a central series of black spots; the head is black, and the fine hairs of the body are yellowish brown. It feeds, in May and June, on apple, plum, dandelion, etc. The fact has been noted that, if supplied with apple until about half grown, and afterwards with dandelion, it attains full size more quickly than when kept to one kind of food only.