THE GOLDEN-EIGHT MOTH IN GREAT BRITAIN. 87
ten years before ; and this varietal form has again turned up
(in February 1912) on a beech-trunk near the Verderer's Path,
between Highbeach and Woodreddon Hill : so that there are
five distinct stations in Epping Forest, in which this rare species,.
or its variety, have been noted during the winter of 1911-12.1
Specimens of both the type species and its variety will be
placed in the Club's Cryptogamic herbarium at the Essex Museum
for future reference.
It is reassuring in these pessimistic times, when veteran
entomologists shake their heads dolefully and declare the Forest
to be barren as compared with its condition in their younger (and,
perhaps, more energetic) days, and when lichenologists lament
the non-existence of species they themselves have failed to detect,
to find that this little moss, at all events, persists, and has known
how to maintain itself during at least 118 years, in its original
habitat.
THE GOLDEN-EIGHT MOTH (PLUSIA MONETA)
IN BRITAIN.
BY CHARLES NICHOLSON.
(Read in substance 4th March, 1911.)
AS the publications of the Club do not contain a circum-
stantial account of Plusia moneta and its arrival in Britain,
and as it seems desirable that such an important and interesting
occurrence should find a place in our records, I have compiled
from various publications and unpublished observations of
myself and others, the following history of the appearance and
doings of the moth in this country.
Its first appearance in Britain seems to have been in 1857,
when two specimens were taken in Kent, but remained un-
identified and unrecorded by their captor until 1893.2 Its
historic invasion of our isles took place in 1890, when its arrival
was made known by the capture of a specimen at flowers of
Delphinium, on the 25th June by a schoolboy at Dover3. From.
that time to the present, i.e. in 21 years—it has spread over
practically the whole of England, south of Lancashire and
1 Since the above was written, a sixth station (in Great Monk Wood) has been noted for
this moss, where it was in abundant fruit.
2 Entomologist's Record, IV., p. 328.
3 Entomologist's XXIII., p. 344.