This species is generally larger than the last-mentioned. The fore wings are marked somewhat as in that species, {158} but they are paler in colour and more glossy; hind wings whitish and glossy. In the female, the wings are useless for flying, but still they are larger than those of _brumata_. The front pair have a blackish band. (Plate 58, Figs. 6 and 7 [male], 5 [female]; ova. Plate 59, Fig. 1.) The caterpillar is greenish, with a greyish stripe along the back, another edged above with yellow along the black spiracles, and a greyish line between the stripes; the head is black. It feeds, in May and June, on birch, and the moth does not appear until October or November. At one time considered to be a purely northern species: the earliest known British specimens, four in number, having been captured at Petty Pool, Delamere, Cheshire, on October 31, 1848. It is now known, however, to have a wide distribution in the south of England. Northwards, its range extends throughout England and Scotland up to Moray. It is found in South Wales; also in Galway, Monaghan, and Connemara, in Ireland. THE TISSUE (_Triphosa dubitata_). The fore wings of this glossy species (Plate 60, Figs. 1, 2) are pale brown, tinged more or less strongly with rosy or purplish; there are numerous darker and paler cross lines, the most distinct and constant being the blackish basal, and the two forming the edges of the central band; the latter are marked with black; the submarginal line is whitish, wavy, and sometimes broken up into dots. The species varies considerably in tint, some specimens inclining to pale greyish brown, others to smoky brown. Hind wings, whitish grey, with several darker grey cross lines; in dark specimens these wings are smoky grey. Ab. _cinereata_, Stephens, is a small pale greyish form, almost without rosy tinge and with fewer cross lines. The caterpillar (Plate 62, Fig. 1) is yellowish green with {159} darker green stripes and lines. In another form there are four pale yellowish lines along the back and a yellow stripe low down along the sides. It feeds on buckthorn (_Rhamnus_), the leaves of which it fastens together with silk, and so forms a retreat. It will also eat sloe and bird-cherry (_Prunus padus_). The moth is out in August and through the autumn, when it sometimes visits the flowers of ivy, ragwort, etc.; after hibernation it is again seen, perhaps even more frequently, in April and May, and is then occasionally found at sallow catkins. The species seems to have been noted from nearly all the English counties, but becomes rare from Yorkshire northwards. In Wales, and in Ireland, it is apparently widely distributed, but in Scotland it seems confined to southern localities, and is only rarely met with. Abroad, the distribution spreads to Amurland, China, and Japan. THE SCARCE TISSUE (_Eucosmia_ (_Calocalpe_) _certata_).