The moth is to be found in May and June, and, in some years, again in July and August. It inhabits woods and hedgerows where sallow is plentiful, but, perhaps, is obtained more freely in fens. Occasionally it may be beaten from the hedges, but it is active on the wing just before the close of day, and then disports itself over and about the sallow bushes. It occurs in suitable localities in most of the eastern and southern counties of England, and has been reported from some of the northern ones, and from Glamorganshire, in South Wales. Kane states that it has been found in the north, south, east, and west of Ireland, but is always local and scarce. NOTE.--Prout considers this species to be the _sexalata_ of Retzius (1783). WINTER MOTH (_Cheimatobia brumata_). In orchards and gardens wherein are fruit trees one may have noticed that the trunks of the trees have broad bands around them. If these bands are examined, they will be seen {157} to be covered with a sticky compound, which has been put there for the purpose of trapping the almost wingless females of the Winter Moth, as they crawl up the tree after emergence from the chrysalis. In spite of such devices, and other precautionary measures taken to safeguard the trees from attack, the foliage of apple, pear, etc., will not be quite free from the caterpillars of this species in their season. The male has greyish brown fore wings, which are crossed by rather darker lines, and a dark, more or less distinct, central band (ab. _hyemata_, Huene). The ground colour is very much darker in some specimens than in others, and examples of a sooty brown colour are not infrequent; Barrett mentions an almost buff-coloured specimen. In the female, the tiny affairs representing wings are brownish, with indications of a darker band towards the outer margin of the front pair. A small, purplish brown form, reared in January, 1882, from caterpillars found in Cumberland, feeding on sweet gale (_Myrica gale_), was described as a new species under the name _myricaria_, Cooke (_Entom._, xv. 57). This has been referred by Staudinger to _C. boreata_, as a form of that species, but it is probably an aberration of _C. brumata._ The caterpillar is green, with a stripe of darker green along the back; on each side of this are two white lines, and along the black spiracles is a pale yellowish line; head, green, sometimes marked with blackish. It feeds on the foliage of trees and bushes, and sometimes abounds in April and May. The moth appears during the winter months, and has been noted as early as October and as late as February. (Plate 58, Figs. 8-10.) Generally distributed throughout the British Isles. NORTHERN WINTER MOTH (_Cheimatobia boreata_).