Except perhaps in the Shetlands, this species is to be found in all parts of the British Isles. It is very common in hedgerows, and around the margins of woods; the smaller race frequents woods where bilberry is established, and also occurs on mountains and moors. Abroad, the range extends to Amurland, China, Japan, and also to North America. MAY HIGHFLYER (_Hydriomena impluviata_). The typical and commoner form of this species is shown on Plate 86, Figs. 7 and 8. The ground colour, usually pale green, is sometimes almost white, but more frequently it is tinged with greyish brown, thus leading up to the blackish ab. _infuscata_, Prout (Figs. 9, 10). [Illustration] 2 Pl. 88. 1. ROYAL MANTLE. 2-4. SHOULDER-STRIPE. 5, 6. BARBERRY CARPET. 7, 8. THE STREAMER. 9, 10. THE FLAME. [Illustration] 2 Pl. 89. 1, 1a. SHOULDER-STRIPE: _caterpillar and chrysalis_. 2, 2a. STREAMER: _eggs and caterpillars_. {215} The caterpillar is brownish grey, or purplish grey, dotted with black and dappled with dark brown; of the three lines along the back, the central one is black and swells out on the middle of each ring, the others are pale; a clear stripe of the ground colour below the black spiracles, and a slender line above them. The general colour is sometimes pale pinky brown or ochreous. It feeds on alder throughout the summer and autumn, and may be found in its domicile of spun-together dry leaves even in November, and sometimes later. Occasionally, a few caterpillars will feed up quickly, and attain the moth state in July or August, but the bulk do not become chrysalids until later in the year, and the moths emerge therefrom in May and early June. (Plate 87, Fig. 2.) The species seems to occur, more or less freely, wherever there are alders throughout the greater part of the British Isles. Abroad, the range extends to Eastern Siberia and Amurland. RUDDY HIGHFLYER (_Hydriomena ruberata_). This species is most readily distinguished from the last by the short oblique black streak on the tips of the rather narrower fore wings; there are also black streaks between the veins and below the tips of the wings, as in the last species, but they are generally shorter and often hardly traceable. The ground colour ranges from pale grey (sometimes with a green tinge), through brownish grey to reddish brown; usually central and outer marginal bands of a darker shade are present, but these characters may be very indistinct or entirely lost in the general coloration. (Plate 86, Figs. 11 and 12.) The caterpillar is pale brown, dappled with grey; three dark greyish lines along the back; spiracles and the usual dots black, the latter with fine hairs; head, reddish brown, plates on first and last rings of the body light brown. It feeds, at night, during the summer and autumn, on sallow and willow, spinning together the leaves at the top of a twig to form a retreat during the day. {216}