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THE sf
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BRITISH ISLANDS
VOL. Tid:

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THE

LEPIDOPTERA

OF THE

BRITISH ISLANDS _

A DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILIES, GENERA, AND
SPECIES INDIGENOUS TO GREAT BRITAIN AND
IRELAND, THEIR PREPARATORY STATES,

HABITS, AND LOCALITIES

BY

CHARLES, G: BARRETT, F.ES.
yy?

ONE OF THE EDITORS OF THE ‘‘ENTOMOLOGIST’S MONTHLY MAGAZINE”

VOL. IIL.
HETEROCERA,
BOMBYCRESNOCHUR.

(! tag i \
\\ '
{ %,

ee Ai
LON D'O'N
LL Reeve AND: CO.
Publishers to the Home, Colontal and invian Governments
6 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.
18096

cs es .
\LUBRARL A

BP 1 DG I Bie,

Family 10. BOMBYCID &.

Antenne pectinated, with long solid teeth in the male;
either with shorter teeth, or merely notched, in the female ;
palpi and tongue minute and apparently functionless, or else
absent ; thorax stout and thickly covered with fur-like scales;
abdomen of female very much stouter than that of the male ;
wings in both sexes broad and rather ample, the hinder often
very broad, and projecting in front.

Larve usually hairy or downy, but the hairs short and
not arranged in conspicuous tufts ; often handsomely coloured.

Pupz smooth, rather soft, often short and broad; con-
tained in a silken cocoon; in some species of very solid
texture ; in others tough, strong, and shining.

A family of robust, vigorous species; and, in some of the
genera, very noble-looking insects; the prevailing colours
various shades of rich warm brown. In most respects form-
ing a strong contrast with the last group.

Genus 1. PZECILOCAMPA.

Antennz of the male strongly and, broadly pectinated to
near the apex, whence the teeth diminish to the tip; abdomen
not densely tufted in either sex; fore wings elongated, hind
rather short, both thinly covered with scales.

There is but one species ; and so far as I can ascertain, it
has no very near ally in any part of the world.

VOL. IIL. A

2 LEPIDOPTERA.

1. P. populi, Z.—Expanse 1} to 13 inch. Blackish-
brown, with a whitish collar, and a whitish line across the
middle of all the wings.

Antennz of the male strongly pectinated, the rows of
teeth rather inclining together, smoky-black, shaft light
brown; head densely tufted with blackish scales which are
tipped with light brown; collar conspicuously covered with
long whitish scales which are tinged at the base with reddish;
thorax stout, densely covered with: long black scales, those
upon the shoulder-flaps tinged with reddish ; abdomen less
stout, covered with long loose blackish scales, except at the
base, which is reddish; anal tuft rather long and_ loose.
Fore wings long and almost bluntly triangular; base very
narrow ; costa but slightly rounded ; apex bluntly angulated ;
hind margin long and very oblique, gently rounded ; dorsal
margin short and rather straight; smoky-black, rather thinly
covered with scales, and somewhat diaphanous, tinged with
reddish-brown at the base and along the dorsal margin; first
line placed near the base, curved, slender, yellowish or
reddish; second line also slender, yellowish-white, oblique,
indented, and having several slight curves, and one, more
decided bend, back to the costa; cilia reddish-brown with
yellowish dashes, but more densely scaled than the rest of
the wings and forming an opaque edge. Hind wings
rounded, not very broad; semi-transparent purplish-grey
with a broad indistinct yellowish-white transverse stripe,
expanding into a blotch at the anterior margin, edged inside
with darker grey; hind margin with a dark grey line ; cilia
reddish-brown dashed with yellowish, and forming a very
pretty edging.

Female stouter, with antenne shortly but regularly pec-
tinated ; collar reddish; abdomen stout, reddish; fore wings
decidedly longer and larger, with the pale second line broader
and more conspicuous; otherwise similar. Underside of the
wings in the male blackish, faintly tinged with reddish-

BOMBYCIDZ. 3

brown, much more strongly so in the female, and having a
faintly yellowish stripe, internally edged with grey, running
across all the wings; cilia reddish-brown with yellowish
dashes; body and legs smoky-black, tinged with brown.
Hardly variable ; but in the late Mr. F. Bond’s collection is
a specimen of a semi-transparent pale smoky-buff colour.
On the wing in October, November, and December.

LarRvA of even thickness, flattened beneath, and with an
appearance of being rather flattened and spread at the sides;
soft, and covered with a great abundance of very fine short
hairs. Head rather small, pale grey or grey-brown ; body
slate-coloured or bluish-grey with a double dorsal row of
pale grey or reddish-brown spots edged with black, and a
subdorsal row of large, round, raised, deep black spots, each
with a spreading bunch of short hairs; sides clouded with
smoky-grey or brown: or the dorsal series of spots is some-
times enclosed in a broad chain of squares united at the
corners ; or of urn-shaped black markings, each having four
yellow spots ; or grey with a dorsal series of oblique crimson
dashes, enclosing, and united by, curved black link-like
markings. The back of the second segment is sometimes
ornamented with a double row of black dots or double
curves; but all the markings are obscured by the soft grey
hairs, which are longer at the sides, and partially hide the
legs and prolegs, though the latter are all rather spreading.
Under surface orange-coloured with black spots. When
younger the larva has the hairs proportionately longer ; it is
of a pale bluish-grey with the head browner, an orange spot
on the second segment and two yellowish dorsal lines.

March or April to June, on oak, birch, sallow, alder, elm,
hawthorn, aspen, lime, ash, and poplar, but by no means so
frequently upon the latter as its name would seem to indicate,
The eggs are laid in the late autumn or early winter, and
usually do not hatch till April, but the young larve feed up
rather rapidly. When well grown they love to rest on the

4 LEPIDOPTERA.

bark of branches and trunks of trees, which from colour and
Spreading hairs they resemble very accurately, clinging
closely and very tightly, and lying often perfectly straight.

Pupa short and stout, rich red-brown and rather glossy.
In a short ovate dark grey-brown cocoon which seems
extremely small for the size of the larva; among rubbish
or leaves on the ground, or more frequently just below the
surface of the ground at the foot of a tree. The Rev. Joseph
Greene says: “ Sometimes it will be found firmly glued to the
inside of a piece of loose bark, or to the tree itself; at others
spun up tightly among decayed leaves, dead grass, &c.”

The male moth flies actively late at night, and may often
be seen dashing in the wildest manner round a gas lamp at
from 10 P.M. to midnight, on a mild winter night, when it
looks more like a circling beetle than a moth. After mid-
night it settles down quietly on the gas lamp till towards the
morning. Probably, if not deluded by a light, it also has a
period of rest between the flights. The female is rarely
observed on the wing, but certainly flies late at night. It is
an exceedingly hardy species; the male has been seen on the
wing during moderately severe frost, and a specimen has
even been found enveloped in ice, and successfully thawed,
when it perfectly recovered. Not especially attached to
woods, though perhaps most common in such situations, but
found among trees about fields, roadsides, open parks, and
the suburbs of towns, and very widely distributed, Plentiful
in Devon and moderately common throughout the Southern,
Eastern, and Western counties, and South Wales, and, more
locally, through the Midland and Northern counties to York-
shire and Cumberland. In Scotland still more local, but
recorded from Roxburgh, Dunoon, ‘Troon, Inverurie, Fyvie,
Pitcaple and elsewhere in Aberdeenshire, and perhaps exist-
ing in most suitable districts, to Moray and Argyle. Pro-
bably in all fairly wooded localities in Ireland, since it is
recorded from Dublin, Wicklow, Kerry, Galway, Tyrone,

BOMB YCIDE. 5

Armagh, and Antrim, and the Messrs. Campbell have found
it, even abundantly, at Londonderry.

Abroad it is common throughout Central and Northern
Europe, except the extreme north, and in Southern France,
Southern Spain, and Northern Italy.

Genus 2. TRICHIURA.

Antenne rather short, thorax stout, abdomen rather slender
in the male, and having at its extremity a bifid tuft; stout in
the female and with a dense woolly tuft; wings broad but
short.

We have only a single species, but the genus is well repre-
sented and has many allies among exotic insects.

1. T. crateegi, Z.—Expanse 1} to 1} inch. Fore wings
short and broad; pale grey or pale brown, with a complete
darker central band.

Antennee of the male short, densely pectinated with long
teeth, the two rows lying rather towards each other, teeth
grey, shaft greyish-white. Head tufted, brownish-grey ;
collar whitish or ashy-grey; thorax stout, densely covered
with long, loose, pale brownish-grey scales; abdomen not
stout, rather tapering, clothed with long whitey-brown scales,
and having a long divided anal tuft of a similar colour.
Fore wings short and broad, narrow at the base, but rapidly
widening, with costal and dorsal margins almost straight ;
apex and hind margin much rounded, and the latter very
little oblique; greyish-white with a tuft of whitey-brown
scales at the base of the dorsal margin; first line black-
brown, usually making a full curve from the costal margin
back to the base, but occasionally attaining the dorsal margin ;
second line oblique, black, four times broadly angulated ;
the space between these two lines forms a purplish-grey
central transverse band, and contains an obscure blackish dot
at the end of the discal cell; beyond the second line is an
indistinct cloudy-grey undulating line before the hind

6 LEPIDORTERA.

margin; cilia whitish, faintly spotted with purplish-grey.
Hind wings nearly as long as the fore wings, ample and very
fully rounded; pale grey with a straight, darker grey stripe
across the middle, edged outwardly with whitish; cilia pale
grey. Female with the antenne very short and small, slightly
toothed, pale brown; head and thorax brown ; abdomen very
stout, whitey-brown, with a dense brown anal tuft. Fore
wings slightly narrower than in the male, pale brown with
the lines and central band rather deeper brown and edged
with whitish clouding; cilia pale brown spotted with darker.
Hind wings pale brown, often whiter toward the base.
Otherwise resembling the male, and but little larger.
Underside in both sexes pale greyish-brown or dull brown,
with a darker brown cloudy stripe through the middle of
fore and hind wings ; body whitey-brown. Legs tufted, grey
in the male, brown in the female.

The male is variable in the ground colour of the fore
wings from grey to nearly white. In the late Mr. H.
Doubleday’s collection in Bethnal Green Museum are
specimens having the ground colour of a lovely creamy-
white; and Dr. Mason has one of a blackish-grey, with the
band still darker.

On the wing at the end of August and in September.

Larva cylindrical, elongate, hairy; head rounded, black ;
body sooty-black, sides greyer and paler; the whole body
covered with fulvous hairs, not sufficiently densely so to
obscure the markings; a broad irregular whitish subdorsal
stripe, interrupted with orange, and having a black dash
beneath it on each segment; two orange dorsal spots on each
segment; a thread-like fulvous line above the spiracles,
which are black, edged with white; beneath them a waved
fulvous line. Legs black; prolegs yellowish. ‘The hairs
which arise from the pairs of dorsal spots are longer and
darker than those on the rest of the body. ‘This larva is
beautiful and exceedingly variable. Another form is black

BOMB YCIDA. 7

on the back and sides, with a brilliant white subdorsal stripe
composed of numerous blotches; beneath it an ill-defined
series of small yellowish spots, and two orange dorsal spots
on each segment. Another has the back black, sides dark.
bluish-grey, a broad and much interrupted orange-tawny
subdorsal band, and a transverse, dorsal, similarly coloured
stripe on each segment. Below the tawny band is a broad
white stripe much interrupted with black spots, and shading
into the grey ground colour at the sides. Again, another is
sooty-black, with broad velvety-black transverse bands, one
on the back of each segment; a series of very conspicuous
orange subdorsal dashes—two on each segment—alternating
with small whitish blotches, the latter being only visible
when the larva is curled up; hairs yellowish-brown. And a
variety from Scotland is velvety-black, having on the sides a
series of cream-coloured blotches conspicuously produced
transversely, and interrupting the black ground colour; the
blotches alternate with small lateral silvery-white spots ;
upper part of each of the larger blotches shaded with orange ;
hairs pale greyish-brown. (C. Fenn.) The head has some-
times white spots on the lobes or a red bar across the upper
portion ; the dorsal spots are sometimes brilliant orange-red ;
and all possible variations from clear white to yellow and
brilliant red seem to be produced, while the ground colour in
some cases is of a slate-blue.

March or April to the beginning of June; on oak, hazel, birch,
hawthorn, blackthorn, sallow, and rarely on poplar. ‘The egg
is acorn-shaped, and of a rich chestnut colour. It is laid in the
autumn, and covered by the parent with down from her anal
tuft; hatches in the early spring, and the larva feeds up
tolerably rapidly. It remains usually on the leaves of trees
or large bushes, and rarely shows itself on the trunk, though
fond of sunning itself on the leaves. A statement has been
made that in the north-east of Scotland it does not feed up
within the year, but hybernates as a larva, producing the
moth in the following season; but this appears so improbable

8 LEPIDOPTERA.

that one is led to suspect a confusion with the larva of one
of the larger Bombyces.

Pupa very stout and round; wing-cases short ; tail rounded,
with a small projection having minute hooked bristles. Red-
brown or dull red; wing-covers and incisions of the segments
darker ; spiracles black and prominent. In a hard, compact,
grey, oval cocoon, which is lined inside with white silk;
among rubbish on the ground. (C. Fenn.) The cocoon is
covered externally with earth.

The moth flies actively early in the evening and again late
at night, but is not often observed in the imago state. The
male may sometimes be attracted by a strong light. It is
mainly confined to woods and wooded districts, though not
wholly so. Fairly common in Kent, Surrey, Sussex and
Berkshire, and generally distributed over the southern half
of England to Norfolk and Herefordshire, though scarce in
the Midland counties and rare in Staffordshire; rare also in
Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Cheshire and Lancashire. In Scot-
land, rather widely distributed in the southern districts to
Ayrshire ; also in Aberdeenshire, Inverness-shire and Argyle-
shire. In Ireland it is only recorded from Killarney. Abroad,
generally distributed in Central and Northern Europe, except
the extreme north; in Spain, Northern Italy, Turkey and
Armenia.

Genus 3. ERIOGASTER.

Antenne rather short; stiffly pectinated in the male,
shortly so in the female; thorax stout ; abdomen in the male
not stout, but with a considerable anal tuft; in the female
cylindrical, very thick, and with a large dense mass of scales
forming the anal tuft; fore wings rather long; hind wings
short ; both rather thinly clothed with scales.

Like the preceding, a genus well represented and widely
distributed in the world, though we have but one native
species.

BOMBYCIDE. 9

1. E. lanestris, /.—Expanse 14 to 1? inch. Chestnut-
brown ; fore wings with a white spot at the base and another
in the middle, and one white transverse line.

Antenne of the male rather short, densely pectinated with
rather short stiff teeth, the two rows inclining toward each
other; light-brown. Head rather small, tufted with long
purplish-brown scales; thorax stout, densely covered with
similar long scales, paler on the hinder portion ; abdomen
short, rather thick, covered with long, loose, brown scales,
and with a very long, loose, divided, greyish-brown anal tuft.
Fore wings broad and somewhat triangular, narrow at the
base, but widening rapidly; costal margin slightly but
regularly concave to near the apex, where it becomes a little
rounded; apex bluntly pointed ; hind margin long and very
oblique, gently rounded off with a regular curve which in-

cludes the anal angle and dorsal margin; purplish-chocolate,
having at the base an ovate, brown-centred, white spot, the
outside edge of which seems to represent an extremely con-
tracted first line ; second line, whitish, very oblique, broader
where it attains the margins ; at the end of the discal cell isa
conspicuous white spot of a roughly ovate or triangular shape ;
space before the hind margin faintly dusted with white; cilia
very short, dark chocolate. Hind wings rounded, but with
the anterior margin strongly arched toward the base, so that
it projects slightly in front of the fore wings when closed ;
pale purplish-chocolate with the anterior margin whitish, and
a whitish, central, cloudy transverse stripe; cilia pale choco-
late, very short. Female decidedly larger, with antenne
very shortly toothed; fore wings both larger and broader ;
abdomen stout, cylindrical, and having a very large obtuse
and somewhat: bulbous anal tuft, composed of silky, blackish,
and silvery-grey scales; otherwise similar to the male.
Underside of the wings paler purplish-chocolate, with the
central white spot of the fore wings of a more lunate shape,
a faint white central dot on the hind wings, and the transverse
pale stripe through each wing as on the upper side; body as

fe) LEPIDOPTERA.

above; legs reddish-brown. Very rarely variable, but a
specimen haying an elongated white central spot, and no
trace of the white transverse line, exists in the cabinet of the
late Mr. F. Bond, and another is in that of Mr. S. Stevens.
There is, moreover, a record that three such were reared at
Worcester a good many years ago. Mr. Stevens has also a
specimen devoid of the central white spot.

On the wing in February and March, but in confinement
may be reared from January to April, though the middle of
February is the favourite time of emergence, should the
weather be fine.

Larva two inches long, rather slender and very soft and
limp; even in thickness. Head small, rounded, with the
lobes deeply divided; grey. Dorsal portion of the second
segment black, edged behind with white ; body blackish-grey,
or slate-colour, with a large, somewhat squared, yellowish-
white or yellow-brown blotch on each segment on each side
of the dorsal line; these blotches are black-edged, and set
each in a white frame; below is a row of black spots, and
the under surface is light brown. Hairs on the dorsal sur-
face very short, downy, and soft, bright brown; on the sides
rather longer and in large tufts, orange-brown tipped with
grey; legs black, prolegs red-brown or bright red, except
the anal pair, which are black. A very handsome larva and
not very variable, though the colour of the large dorsal spots
varies from yellowish-white to red. When young it is of a
paler slate colour, or greenish-grey, with the spots black.

April to July or August, on hawthorn and blackthorn,
usually the former. The eggs are laid in February or March
in a Close mass, deposited spirally round a twig of the food-
plant, and carefully and closely covered over with the mouse-
coloured scales from the anal tuft of the female, forming thus
a very pretty object. ‘The young larvee very soon construct a
silken covering, or habitation, in which they live, leaving it
to feed and returning to it to rest, when they lie closely

BOMB YCIDE. II

together, or even crawl one upon ancther, on the surface of the
web, in fine weather basking in the sunshine ; or crowd within
it, when the weather is cold or wet, and show the utmost
sociability of disposition. After the last moult they scatter
and become quite solitary, wandering sometimes to a con-
siderable distance before spinning up. If kept in confine-
ment and not allowed plenty of air and sunshine they become,
at this stage, excessively restless, and refuse to spin up, con-
tinuing to feed a little and wandering about, sometimes, until
far into the autumn, after which most of them die. On the
Continent, where the insect is more generally abundant, it
feeds in addition on cherry, plum, lime, sallow, and birch.

Pupa short and thick, rather broad; dark brown. In a
small firm egg-shaped cocoon, very small for the size of the
larva, and composed of silk mixed with a peculiar pasty
material, which is secreted by the larva, and when dry has a
somewhat chalky, dusty appearance, ‘This substance, mixed
with the silk, forms the outer surface of the cocoon, and is
pierced with a number of minute holes, probably for the passage
of air, but inside there is a silken lining which shows no trace
of these breathing pores. When the moth emerges a lid is
pushed off at one end of the cocoon, having been to all
appearance carefully cut partially through, from the inside, by
the pupa, for this purpose. The pupa of this species has
other strange peculiarities. Its time for production of the
moth is quite problematical. Very few emerge in the spring
following the change to pupa, many more, apparently, in the
second and third years, others still later, up to seven, or it is
even said to nine years after pupation, Yet if the cocoon is
cut open and the pupa examined the moth is usually to be
found fully formed therein, and an individual so liberated has
even been known to spread its wings and assume in all respects
the appearance of a moth which had emerged of its own accord
Moreover, the production of the moths may be stimulated,
and that without any excessive delay, since I have myself, in

12 LEPIDOPTERA.

the middle of February, and after the emergence of the first
specimen, put a large number of cocoons upon a warm
mantelpiece, and obtained scores of moths within a few hours.

This insect is rarely seen alive in the perfect state. Hven
when sitting on a hawthorn spray it soaccurately mimicsadead
leaf twisted round the twig that it becomes almost impossible
of recognition. Both sexes doubtless fly late at night, but it
appears to be indifferent to the attraction of light, and con-
sequently is never observed on the wing. Most plentiful in
coast districts, but irregular and extremely uncertain in
numbers ; so abundant in some years, in its favoured districts,
that several nests may be found in a single hedge within a
few yards; in other years, and sometimes for several in
succession, very scarce. With these limitations it may be
said to be common in all the Southern Counties, and abundant
in the Eastern, but very local in Devon, and apparently
absent from the western portion of South Wales. More
locally, found in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Lancashire,
Cheshire, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire, and very rarely in
North Staffordshire, where Mr. T. C. Woodforde informs me
of the occurrence of asingle brood of larvae between Newcastle-
under-Lyme and Market Drayton. In the southern portion
of that county it is not so rare. Also found locally in the
South of Scotland, including several localities in the Clyde
district. Weaver recorded it from the neighbourhood of Ben
Nevis in 1845. Mr. W. Reid states that it has become
plentiful at Pitcaple, Aberdeenshire, in descent from larvee
introduced there from Essex. In Ireland it is very widely
distributed, being recorded from Kilkenny, Galway and
Londonderry—even abundant on the coast of the last-named
county. Abroad it is plentiful in Central and Northern
Kurope, extending to Southern Lapland; also found among
the mountains of Northern Italy, and in Turkey and Southern
Russia.

BOMB YCIDA:, 13

Genus 4, CLISIOCAMPA.

Antenne rather short, stoutly pectinated in the male,
slightly so in the female; thorax broad, abdomen short and
not tufted, thick and pointed in the female; wings rather
short, the hind very broad, all densely clothed with scales.

The two species are very similar, but can at once be
distinguished by the form of the first transverse line—which

in C. neustria crosses the wing, but in C. castrensis curves in,
to the base.

1, C. neustria, 2.—Hxpanse of male 11 to 12 inch, of
female 14 to 13.

Dull red-brown or buff; fore wings with a broad regular
central band.

Antenne of the male rather short and somewhat recurved
beyond the middle, strongly pectinated with long curved teeth;
shaft thick, but tapering to a point; entirely brown; head
tufted, red-brown. ‘Thorax stout, abdomen tapering and
rather short, both densely clothed with long, loosely-disposed
scales. Fore wings short and broad, somewhat triangular,
with the costal margin nearly straight; apex angulated ;
hind margin very gently curved in a long sweep round the
anal angle and dorsal margin. Hind wings rounded behind
and with the anterior margin strongly arched near the base,
so that in repose it projects distinctly in front of the fore
wings. Head, thorax, abdomen and wings uniformly yellow-
buff, yellow-brown, umbreous, chocolate, or red-brown; fore-
wings with both first and second lines rather curved and
sinuous, and more or less parallel, dark-brown or red-brown,
but in the darker specimens often edged outwardly with buff,
so as to give the impression that the lines are of that colour ;
cilia usually yellowish, irregularly spotted or blotched with
chocolate, but in the darkest forms wholly red-brown. Hind
wings often without markings, otherwise with a central
cloudy transverse brown line or shade coincident with the

14 LEPIDOPTERA.

second line on the fore wings; cilia as in the fore wings. In
the darker specimens the space between the two lines of the
fore wings often appears as a dark central band, the pale
edging of the two lines shading off so as to throw it con-
spicuously up. Female larger and stouter; antennz very
short, but distinctly though shortly pectinated, and curved
back; abdomen very large and rather scantily clothed with
scales. ore wings long, and with the two transverse lines
less parallel and very often drawing near together below the
middle, so as to constrict the central band, which is usually
rather dark ; colour almost as variable as in the male, though
rarely of the yellowish-buff; the usual tints are shades of
purplish-brown, red-brown, or chocolate, always rather dull,
and becoming in the darkest specimens almost unicolorous.
Underside similar in colour to the upper, but in the buff
specimens clouded with brown or reddish on the costa and
hind margin; the second line of the upper side visible as a
brown or reddish central line, and continued distinctly across
the hind wings; body and legs agreeing with the general
colour.

As already indicated, always variable, the produce of any
single batch of eggs differing considerably from each other,
but, broadly speaking, the yellow-buff and paler brown forms
are more abundant in the south, the darker and more red-
brown varieties northward, and sometimes extremely red
forms in the Eastern Counties. Beyond these, aberrations are
rare, but in the collection of the late Mr. F. Bond are males
having the first and second lines drawn so near each other as
nearly or quite to coalesce, and a female in which they have
joined, and the central band has divided into distinct blotches.
Others, of a rich brown, have the two lines white and the
central band dusted with the same.

On the wing in July and August.

Larva two inches long, cylindrical, of even thickness,
exceedingly soft and limp. Head round, blue-grey, with

BOMB YCIDE. 4 15

two black spots; second segment brown or grey, with two
large angular black spots; dorsal portion of the remainder
of the body red-brown, forming a broad dorsal stripe crossed
by dark grey lines, and divided lengthwise by a slender
white dorsal line edged with black on each side; below the
broad red stripe is a slender brown or grey stripe, from which
to the spiracles the whole lateral space is occupied by a
broad blue stripe, edged just below the spiracles by a red-
brown line. All these longitudinal stripes are separated by
black lines. Whole upper surface densely covered with
short soft yellowish hairs, those along the spiracular region
rather longer. Under surface and all the legs blue-grey.

April to June, on blackthorn, hawthorn, oak, birch, willow,
poplar, elm, maple, and especially on fruit trees. In
suburban gardens it shows a strong preference for almond,
and is not unfrequently found upon common laurel. The
egos are laid in July or August round a twig of the food-
plant, placed closely together, regularly, ring after ring, and
so firmly cemented that the whole may be slipped off the
twig when it is dry and shrunken, and thus appear as a com-
pact cylinder. They are not covered with the down of the
female—she being deficient in that material—but remain on
the trees through the winter, hatching in April. The young
larvee at once construct a silken covering, in which they live
gregariously until well grown, and upon which they cast
their skins; but if necessary they leave the original habita-
tion and construct another, and others successively, on the
tree, so as to secure plenty of food at: hand. In fine weather,
when shelter is unnecessary, they rest on the bark of a
branch, crowding together in scores or hundreds, and cover-
ing a large space. When near full growth the nest is
abandoned, and the larvae seem to scatter as far from each
other as possible, and sometimes travel rapidly considerable
distances.

Pupa thick, tapering rapidly behind into a blunt point ;

16 LEPIDOPTERA.

spiracles conspicuous, antenna-cases very distinct; back
covered with minute bristles; colour dull dark brown. Ina
firm spindle-shaped cocoon, which is enclosed ina looser outer
silken envelope; the inner cocoon being abundantly supplied
with a yellow powder produced from the intestine of the
larva, the use of which is not understood. The cocoon is
placed in a curved leaf or on the bark of a twig, branch, or
trunk, or on some neighbouring fence, wall, or other con-
venient place ; always in a chink or corner, and the less
conspicuous as it is not very unlike the ege-covering of a
large spider.

The moth does not seem to fly at dusk, but late in the
evening the male not unfrequently enters at an open window,
attracted by a strong light, and, when in, goes at once to the
ceiling, where it performs the wildest vagaries of flight. It
is also a frequent visitor to the gas lamps in suburban roads,
but, except for this, is rarely seen on the wing. Most
irregular and uncertain in its appearances; abundant in
some years, very scarce in others, and rather apt to continue
abundant or scarce for several consecutive seasons. No
explanation can reliably be given for this, and there is no
reason whatever to suppose that it remains in cocoon to
succeeding seasons. When abundant it is most destructive
to trees, fruit trees especially being defoliated. Formerly
the larvee were to be seen by thousands in the outskirts of
London, and the almond trees suffered greatly ; but, so far
as can be judged, there is a permanent change for the better
in this respect; certainly no such abundance has recently
been observed.

Usually plentiful throughout the South, Hast, and West
of England, with South Wales, and often in North Wales ;
but scarce or absent in the Midland Counties, and apparently
not observed north of Lancashire and Yorkshire, where it is
very local or rare. Also found abundantly in some parts of
the South and West of Ireland, but apparently very little
north of Dublin and Galway. Abroad it is abundant and

BOMBYCIDE. 17

often destructive, extending over the greater part of the
Continent of Europe, except the extreme north, and into
Siberia, Tartary, and a large portion of Hastern Asia. From
Japan it is received under the name of testacea Kotze, but
agreeing accurately, in both sexes, with our insect. There is
also avery similar form found in America, and named Califor-
nica, which, though rather slender, seems doubtfully distinct.

2. C. castrensis, Z.—Expanse of male, 11 inch, of
female, 14 to 13. Yellowish-buff or red-brown, with a
central band leading into the base of the fore wings. Hind
wings nearly always dark-coloured.

Antennz of the male rather short and recurved, strongly
pectinated, reddish-brown. ‘Thorax broad and squared, abdo-
men short and tapering ; both, with the head, densely clothed
with long fluffy scales; pale ochreous, reddish-ochreous, or
red-brown ; abdomen browner than the rest. Fore wings
short and broad, bluntly triangular; base narrow, costa
straight ; apex bluntly angulated; dorsal and hind margins
regularly rounded; straw colour, pale ochreous, pale buff,
reddish-ochreous, or red-brown; first line reddish-brown,
arising in the middle of the costa, and making a wide curve
into the base of the dorsal margin; second line oblique and
moderately straight ; between this and the hind margin is
usually a line of indistinct reddish or brownish clouds ; occa-
sionally the base and middle area of the wings are faintly
clouded with the same, but when the wings. are of a red-
brown these markings are absorbed or very faint; cilia
yellowish, with irregular reddish-brown dashes. Hind wings
short, with the hind margin very slightly and flatly rounded ;
but the anterior margin is so much arched near the base that
a curved-up flap appears conspicuously in front of the fore
wings when the moth is at rest. Colour of the hind wings
pale, or deep purplish-brown or chocolate, strikingly con-
trasted in colour with the fore wings in the lighter-coloured
specimens ; a little darker, but less conspicuously so, in the

VOL. III, B

18 LEPIDOPTERA.

red-brown forms; sometimes also haying a faint yellowish
transverse central shade ; cilia yellow, in some cases blotched
with dark brown. Female very different; antennze short,
with minute regular pectinations ; fore wings much larger, and
with the hind margin more curved; pale or dark reddish-
brown, with the lines, in some cases, rendered conspicuous
by a broad edging of pale yellow, in others hardly visible ;
cilia in some specimens unicolorous brown, in others alter-
nately blotched with brown and yellow. Hind wings red-
brown, without markings ; abdomen rather long, stout, and
clumsy.

Underside of the paler males light brown, often with a
yellowish central cloudy stripe, and the hind margin and
apex spotted with yellowish ; hind wings pale yellow, with a
light brown central stripe, and some clouding towards the
hind margin; in dark males, and in females, unicolorous
reddish-brown or pale brown, or in some instances with a
yellowish central shade; body and legs agreeing in colour
with the rest of the under surface.

Variation, as already indicated, almost universal. Some
of the males, with pale fore wings, have upon them very
pretty shadings of brown, others are absolutely devoid of
any lines or markings whatever; and some of the dark
forms are similarly unicolorous. Mr. §. Stephens has a male
specimen of which the fore wings are olive-brown, without
transverse lines ; Mr. C. A. Briggs has one of a smoky-brown,
the hind wings especially so; and in the cabinet of the late
Mr. F. Bond are females clouded with yellow, and with the
central band constricted.

On the wing in July and August ; reared specimens emerge
occasionally in September.

Larva cylindrical, moderately plump, covered with soft
downy hairs, among which arise longer tufts of hairs from the
usual structural spots. Head round, hairy, bluish-grey ; second
segment with a beautiful border of orange coloured markings

BOMBYCIDE. , 1g

at front and back; general colour rich dark chestnut-brown,
with slender dashes of light fulvous down the region of
the dorsal line; subdorsal stripes light blue, interrupted,
and with still more interrupted light orange-red lines below
them, beneath which last are fragmentary blue spiracular lines.
The tufts of hairs are reddish, most abundant along the sides,
but plentiful over the whole surface. Under surface blackish,
legs black, prolegs dark grey, with light brown claspers.
Sometimes there are complete blue dorsal, subdorsal, and
spiracular stripes; in other cases the intermediate orange-
red or red-brown stripes are more conspicuous.

May, June, and the beginning of July, on low-growing
plants in salt marshes—Plantayo maritima, Artemesia mari-
tima, Atriplex portulacoides, A. littoralis, Statice limonium,
apparently almost any of the saltern plants, including
grasses. In confinement will feed greedily upon Polygonum
aviculare, rose, birch, apple, pear, cherry, plum, and black-
thorn, especially after the leaves have been dipped in salt
water. Not, however, very easy to rear in captivity, unless
allowed plenty of sunshine and air, and also having upon its
food, and even its body, an occasional sprinkling of water.
In its natural condition it is well supplied with water, since
the marsh beneath it is always wet, and very high tides
invade its food. Indeed, the eggs, which are laid in August
and do not hatch till May, must very frequently be under water
during the equinoctial tides of both autumn and spring.
The young larve construct a silken tent or web, low down
among the marsh plants, in which they live gregariously
when the weather is cool or dull, but sunshine arouses them,
and they love to bask upon their food-plants. Mr. W. H.
Wright wrote me in 1892: “The larve are in thousands on
the salt marshes near Shoeburyness. I saw some yesterday
(June 19th) not larger than ants, extremely small in fact;
others larger, in companies, in such abundance that it was
difficult to avoid treading on them; the half-grown larvee
lying side by side, in masses, on the sea-plantain and other

20 LEPIDOPTERA.

plants, all with their heads toward the sun, basking in the
warmth, and so sensitive that on the least disturbance, or
only on the approach of an intruder, every head would
instantly be raised and thrown back. After the last moult
the companies separate, and the larve feed up singly, and
may be found so, nearly full fed, almost all over the
marshes.”

Pupa rather short and thick, narrowing suddenly at the
eleventh and twelfth seoments, and with the thirteenth rather
prolonged, but blunt; antenna-cases and wing-covers very
distinct ; the thicker abdominal segments covered with short
fine prostrate whitish bristles, general colour dull black.
In a long spindle-shaped cocoon of tough silk, thin and
semi-transparent, but enclosed in an outside looser silken
covering, and provided with a quantity of loose yellowish
powder, which appears to be produced from the intestine of
the larva. Among plants and grasses, more especially the
stiff hard grasses along the edge of the salt marshes.

The moth is very rarely observed on the wing, though it
doubtless flies over the salt marshes at night. It has, how-
ever, been known to visit a strong light near the shore. Its
home in this country is in a very restricted district—Graves-
end, Erith, Southend, Shoeburyness, Sheerness, and generally
the salt marshes of the estuaries of the Thames and Medway,
situated in Kent and Essex. Probably also on the coast of
Suffolk. Dr. Hele wrote, a few years ago, “ Formerly abund-
ant near the Haven at Thorpe, Suffolk, but has totally dis-
appeared, probably from the sea having broken in during a
heavy gale and flooded the plain.” I know of no other
localities in the United Kingdom. Abroad it is very widely
distributed over the greater part of the Continent of Europe,
Asia Minor, Northern Persia, Armenia, and Siberia, and is in no
degree restricted to salt marshes, but inhabits woods and
heaths and open waste ground, feeding on oak, birch, black-

BOMBVYCIDE. ; 21

thorn, Helianthemum vulgare, Euphorbia cyparissias, Centaurea
jacea, Geranium dissectum, Hieracium pilosella, and even
heather. ;

Genus 5. LASIOCAMPA.,

Large insects. Antenne in the male with long, stout
pectinations, which are densely ciliated ; in the female hardly
toothed; palpi extremely small; thorax and abdomen very
robust, the latter slightly tufted at the tip; wings very broad
and powerful, and having a peculiarly substantial appear-
ance.

The three species are readily distinguished—Z. rubi has
not the white spot which is conspicuous in the other two;
L. trifolit has, nearly always visible, a curved paler stripe
near the base, which is absent in L. querciis.

1. L. trifolii, #sp.—Expanse of male 1 to 2 inches, of
female 2 to 24 inches. Dull reddish-brown, with a narrow
paler stripe beyond the middle of the wings, and a white
central spot. Fore wings rather pointed.

Antennz of the male strongly and densely pectinated, the
shaft whitish, the long pectinations brown; thorax stout ;
abdomen somewhat tapering; head, thorax, and abdomen
densely clothed with long fluffy scales of a purple-brown or
dark tawny colour, and the abdomen having a rather divided
similar tuft at the anal segment. Fore wings broadly trian-
gular ; costa straight; apex sharply angulated ; hind margin
slightly rounded and hardly oblique; dorsal margin curved
and densely fringed with long soft silky scales ; light red-
brown, with a faintly indicated, much curved, ashy or yellowish
stripe from the costal margin to the middle of the base,
the outer edge thereof indicating the usual first line; second
line a yellowish-white transverse stripe beyond the middle
of the wing, broadest toward the dorsal margin, gracefully
curved and rather oblique; beyond this the hind marginal

22 LEPIDOPTERA:

space is dusted with yellowish scales; the nervures being
distinctly darker than the interspaces ; a rounded clear white
spot lies at the end of the discal cell; ciliared-brown.. Hind
wings broadly rounded, red-brown, often unicolorous, other-
wise with more. or less indication of a rather slender
yellowish-white transverse stripe beyond the middle, which
is rarely distinct ; basal half of the wings thickly clothed
with long silky hairs; cilia red-brown.

Female larger and stouter ; antennez shortly toothed ; fore
wings larger and longer, with the costal margin rounded
beyond the middle; red-brown, sometimes dusted all over, or
in the basal, or hind marginal spaces, with dull buff scales ;
in other cases showing no trace of them; first transverse line
more complete, often reaching the dorsal margin as the edge
of a faintly paler basal patch; second stripe more oblique,
less strongly marked; hind marginal space usually rather
paler than the central portion ; hind wings unicolorous ; other-
wise similar.

Underside drab-brown with a broad, gracefully curved,
reddish-brown shade crossing the middle of all the wings ;
body and legs darker brown. Besides the slight variations
above noted, the curved-in first stripe in the male is occa-
sionally reduced to a mere loop, or totally absent; in other
cases the second stripe is broader and very white and distinct.
I have a female in which the two stripes are joined by a pale
bar breaking the central darker space ; and Mr. 8. J. Capper
has one devoid of transverse stripes. Specimens from the
old Kentish locality were very much paler than those
described, being of a light bright yellowish-brown ; and of
this form Dr. Mason has a specimen devoid of the stripes and
the white spot, but with darkened nervures. In his collection
is also a deep chocolate-red specimen taken in Hants. A
gynandrous example is on record, of which the right side is
male; the division of sexes in it being so marked as to form
a line down the middle of the thorax and abdomen, especially
visible on the underside.

BOMB YCIDE. 23
On the wing in August and September.

Larva two to two and one-half inches long, cylindrical, last
two segments tapering a little. Head broad, with the lobes
prominent and very distinctly marked, light brown, face
yellow, lobes outlined with black; body covered with short
soft hairs which form a raised line down the middle of
the back; bright yellow-brown, rather paler yellow on
the back, and having a very soft silky appearance ;
divisions of the segments black, and each segment crossed
by one or more black wrinkles; subdorsal region with a row
of small round or ovate black spots, two on each segment ;
and on the second, third, and fourth segments is an
additional, larger, round spot lower down on each side;
spiracular stripe and under surface bluish-grey; legs whitish ;
prolegs yellowish; hairs above the spiracles yellow, grey
below. When young readily distinguished by a yellow
collar.

A variety of the larva of which the hairs are all whitish is
figured by Mr. W. Buckler.

September or October to June, hybernating when very
small. On grasses of many kinds, but principally those which
grow in sandy places. Also upon Anthyllis vulneraria,
Medicago falcata and M. sativa, Ononis spinosa, Lotus
corniculatus, Trifolium mediwm, and T. pratense, Melrlotus,
Cytisus, Ulex, sallow, bramble, and plantain, and in confine-
ment said also to eat oak, beech, ash, poplar, willow,
hawthorn, blackthorn, and raspberry. The larva hides close
to the ground in the daytime, but about sunset crawls quite
suddenly up to feed, and there seems little doubt that grass
is most frequently chosen. Never gregarious.

Pupa short and broad, tapering off very rapidly behind ;
antenna-cases extremely prominent; colour light brown. In
a small ege-shaped cocoon of rather brittle, almost papery
texture, but very strong, most singularly covered with minute
projecting clinging points; the fine larval hairs are disposed

24 LEPIDOPTERA

irregularly all over the cocoon, but not laid in any kind of
sequence ; the blacker and more bristly hairs point straight
outward as though pushed through, and produce the clinging
sensation by entering the skin of one’s hand.

The cocoon is usually placed under the surface of the sand,
among grass roots, but sometimes on the surface.

The male moth flies after six o’clock P.M., and is fully on
the wing about seven; at eight o'clock it may be assembled
by means of a freshly reared female. The flight of the latter
sex is rather later in the evening and is rarely observed; but
that of the male is said to be of a very undulating character,
rising and falling in the air with great swiftness, but keeping
pretty closely to the wild sandy place in which it has reached
maturity. In this country it is confined to the coast, and is
now very much scarcer and more restricted in its distribution
than formerly. In 1845 it was common on the Cornish coast ;
in 1856 hundreds of larvee were found on the coast of Sussex
feeding on grasses; in the same year an abundance at
Plymouth, feeding on a great variety of plants; and in 1859
it was common in the New Forest district of Hants. Other
southern localities are on record along the coast of Devon,
Dorset, Kent, and even Suffolk. In most of these it appears
now to be either very rare or extinct, but I hear from Mr.
Webb that the light variety has quite recently been found in
Kent. Formerly most abundant on the sandy coast of
Lancashire and Cheshire, near Liverpool, but for a long time
it has been scarcer there, though within the last two or three
years there is fortunately some recovery, and many have been
reared. When at Carlisle Mr. G. Dawson showed me
specimens reared from larve found on the north part of
the Cumberland coast, but apparently this is the extent
northward of its range in these islands. Abroad it is by no
means restricted to the coast, but is found even in woods
and grassy places in many parts of Central and Southern
Europe, Sweden, Livonia, Asia Minor, Syria, Armenia and

BOMBYCIDE. 25

Northern Africa. At Tangier Mr. J. J. Walker, R.N., found
the larva feeding commonly on the single-seeded white
broom.

2. L. quercts, /.—Expanse of the male 2} to 2} inches,
of female 2? to 3} inches. Male rich chestnut; female
yellow-brown; all the wings with a broad yellower band

beyond the middie ; fore wings with a white central spot.

Antenne of male variable in length, stout, prominent,
pointing forward and curved outward; very strongly pecti-
nated with long stout teeth set closely together, and curled
in at their tips; shaft yellow-brown ; pectinations red-brown.
Head, thorax, which is broad and powerful, and abdomen,
which is stout but tapering, all densely covered with long
fluffy red-brown scales; anal tuft similar, not very thick;
fore wings broad and ample, very stout and strong; costal
- margin straight to beyond the middle, thence gently rounded ;
apex slightly rounded off, but rather square; hind margin
nearly straight or slightly simuous to near the anal angle,
where it is boldly rounded off, the curve extending to the
dorsal margin; rich red-brown or reddish-chocolate ; first
line absent; normal second line rather beyond the middle,
gracefully sinuous and varying in position and form, but
sharply defined and edged outwardly by a broad yellowish-
fulvous stripe, shading off into the red-brown ground colour
toward the hind margin; but this portion of the chestnut
colouring is paler than that before the band, especially so
between the nervures; at the extremity of the discal cell is a
conspicuous black-edged pure white spot, and sometimes a
yellow blotch or epaulet is visible rather near to the costa at
the base of the wings; cilia dark red. Hind wings red-
brown to beyond the middle, where is a narrower transverse
yellow-fulvous stripe, its inner edge sharply defined and
meeting that on the fore wings; outside this the yellow-
fulvous shades off to the ground colour; cilia yellowish;

26 LEPIDOPTERA.

whole basal area abundantly covered with long silky hair-
scales having a soft rich gloss.

Female much larger and stouter, with shorter antenne,
which are distinctly pectinated with short teeth; abdomen
very large and heavy; fore wings longer and more ample,
with the costal and hind margins more rounded, and the
latter more oblique; hind wings also larger. Head, antenna,
thorax, abdomen, and wings pale yellow-brown, densely
clothed (except the antennze) with soft scales; the white spot
of the fore wings large, and edged with chocolate; no trace
of the basal yellow spot; the pale transverse band rather
more curved and oblique; in other respects as in the male.

Underside of the wings of the male red-brown to beyond
the middle, thence dull ochreous ; the outer edge of the red-
brown portion sharply defined, and nearly, though not quite,
coincident with the second line of the upper side; margins
rather clouded with red-brown ; body red-brown ; legs yellow-
brown: of the female a paler or yellower reproduction of the
upper side, but without the white central spot.

Variation in this species is very considerable, but mainly
local or climatal. In typical southern specimens of the male,
such as are above described, the transverse pale stripe of the
fore wings is sometimes nearly perpendicular and very little
waved; in other cases more oblique and more curved
outwardly. In those from the north and west there is
similar variation, but always more in the direction of oblique
position and more graceful curves. In them the colour is
intensified, becoming an exceedingly rich glossy dark choco-
late, this colour extending further in both fore and hind
wings, and pushing the second line and its attendant yellow
stripe further back. Often the yellow stripe is narrower and
the hind margin more broadly suffused with chocolate, and
with still darker nervures ; or else the yellow colour is thrown
off in rays toward the hind margin between the dark
nervures. In the dark forms the basal yellow blotch or
epaulet becomes constant, more distinct, and even large and

BOMB YCIDE. 27

conspicuous, and the insects are of rather remarkable beauty.
The female varies in a somewhat similar direction, but
without assuming any of the glossy brightness of the male ;
the ground colour becoming tinged more or less with reddish-
brown, especially so in the basal half of the hind wings. The
transverse line is also intensified in colour, and sometimes
edged internally with dark brown, and the general dark
clouding leaves the pale stripe more distinct. In some
individuals, however, in both sexes the pale stripe disappears
from the hind wings, leaving the outer half of the wings
hardly paler in colour, but more thinly covered with scales
than usual; in other instances the female is almost uni-
colorous reddish-brown, and has a very coarse dull colouring,
which in rare cases is intensified to deep red-brown. One
_ such, in the collection of Mr. Walker of Liverpool, remained
two winters in the pupa state. All the darker forms consti-
tute what has been called a distinct species, and named
L. callune, but which has not the slightest claim to specific
distinctness. The two forms are structurally identical, and
in colouring are united by every possible intermediate grada-
tion. Moreover, rich dark males of the pure callune variety,
found plentifully in the far west corner of South Wales, are
the mates of females of the purest soft yellow-brown southern
form. On the other hand, Mr. H. Goss has a female reared
from a larva found on the South Coast which closely approxi-
mates to the northern specimens, having the basal half of
the wings clouded with dark brown. Mr. 8. J. Capper has a
female specimen wholly of a foxy-red brown, the band and
hind margin of the fore wings somewhat paler. Specimens
of the same sex in Mr. Sydney Webb’s cabinet, reared from
larvee from the moors near Manchester, are semi-transparent
from a very considerable failure of scales all over the wings ;
and others are entirely dark brown. Males in the same
collection have strikingly large epaulets; and one in that
of Dr. Mason has them of extraordinary dimensions. Mr.
S. Stevens has a dark male with semi-transparent pale

28 LEPIDOPTERA.

yellowish hind wings; Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher another
with the fore wings entirely deep red-brown, except a very
narrow pale stripe; and I reared one in Pembrokeshire
of which the outer halves of the fore wings are of the paler
colour of the female. In the collection of the late Mr. F.
Bond are two gynandrous examples, one being exactly
divided, the left side male, but the other having male
antenne and large elongated blotches of the female colouring
on the wings. Perhaps the most extraordinary variation yet
noticed is one of a very dark red-brown which has the pale
stripes olive-green, and rays of the same colour running
toward the hind margin. 'T'wo such males and a female have
been obtained in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and one is
in the cabinet of Mr. G. T. Porritt. Very possibly the figure
of Lasiocampa dumeti in Westwood and Humphrey’s work
may have been drawn from a specimen such as these. LHven
the central white spot varies in shape, from nearly round to
diamond-shaped or irregularly angulated. In one male
specimen, taken in Pembrokeshire, it is elongated and
divided. Some indication of possible cause of variation of
colour in this species has been furnished by Mr. F. Merri-
field, who has brought out males of a rich red colour from
pupe of the northern dark chocolate race by keeping them
at a temperature of 80 degrees F. Those of the southern
race, kept under similar conditions, were of an unusually
light colour; while those kept at 46 degrees ’. were much
darker. That the dark northern colouring is not wholly
produced by length of time in the pupa state is proved by
the rearing of dark specimens in the same summer as that in
which the larve fed up; or, on the other hand, by the
emergence of typical light forms from pupz which have lain
through the winter.

On the wing in July and August ; occasionally at the end
of June.

Larva large, cylindrical, elongated, hairy ; head rounded,

BOMB YCIDEZ. Ms 29

lobes dull purple dusted with grey ; face ochreous with brown
marking. Incisions of the segments velvety-black and
without hairs; remainder of -the dorsal region dark brown,
covered with soft fulvous hairs of moderate and unequal
length; there is a lateral interrupted white stripe, below
which the sides are dark purplish-brown marbled with orange
and with tawny hairs; spiracles white; an oval white spot,
red or brown-centred, immediately above the lateral stripe on
the third and fourth segments; front edge of the second
segment dull orange; and when half grown having a short
whitish diagonal dash meeting the lateral stripe; under
surface black, with the sides ochreous and tawny, and in the
anterior segments with a series of shining black spots; anal
segment tinged with ferruginous ; legs shining brown, spotted
with black; prolegs tawny, with black dashes. (C. Fenn),
When young variable, light or dark brown, with the dorsal
markings more distinct, and the segmental divisions some-
times deep blue with black and white spots.

Northern larvee are further variable, especially when young ;
bright golden brown, lighter or darker, with the white
subdorsal line interrupted sand broken into spots, lateral
region reddish-brown with the hairs dark brown, and the
red broken markings obscured, or sometimes absent, ‘I'he
younger larvee often possess yellowish bars, or large spots, on
the dorsal region, and in many individuals the segmental
divisions are blue, sometimes even light blue or lilac, with
these colours rather suffused on the sides.

August till June, or, in the north, till August, on heather,
hawthorn, blackthorn, mountain-ash, dogwood, bramble, and
indeed on shrubs generally and many low plants, not
refusing ivy; feeding usually at night and hiding itself on
the branches in the daytime. The larva hybernates, when
about an inch long, in November, recommences to feed in
April, and in the south usually feeds up rapidly. In Derby-
shire and Staffordshire a portion of a brood will do this,
the remainder feeding more slowly, and remaining in pupa

30 LEPIDOPTERA.

through the winter, and this also is the case in Cheshire
and Lancashire ; yet so far north as Dumfries a larva found
feeding in May has been known to produce the moth in
August of the same year. On the other hand, larvee found
in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight have fed up slowly and
remained in pupa through the winter. Such instances as
these last are rare, and, broadly speaking, the transforma-
tions of this species occupy one year in the south, two in
the north. The hairs of this larva are slightly brittle, and
minute portions of them are apt to break off and stick into
the thin skin between the fingers when the larva is handled.
To persons of very sensitive skin, irritation and inflammation
is sometimes caused in this manner.

Pura lively and very stout, incisions of segments deep ;
antenna- and limb-cases very distinct, spiracles prominent,
anal extremity blunt and pubescent. Purplish-brown,
abdomen paler; spiracles black. In a hard papery shell-like
cocoon, oval in shape, spun in a slight web among the stems
of plants near the surface of the ground, or occasionally
beneath the surface. The inside of the cocoon is lined with
smooth white silk. As already intimated, in pupa either for
a very short time—about three weeks—or else through the
winter and for a period of ten months; very rarely for an
additional year.

The male flies with great swiftness, in the sunshine, over
heaths, and at the sides of woods and fields, in eager search
for the female. No other species assembles in greater
numbers or with equal eagerness. A reared female carried in
a box in the hand, or the pocket, or in the box of a vehicle,
will bring together the males from every direction, some
flying steadily to the spot and fluttermg or running all over
the place in which the female is hidden, or flapping here and
there all round, or sweeping backwards and forwards in wide
beats; while others go quite frantic, dash themselves on the
ground among heather or plants, spin on their heads, or twirl

BOMBYCIDA. 31

themselves among the vegetation, so as utterly to destroy
their beauty. On one occasion I saw a somewhat different
gathering. The wind was blowing a stiff gale right along the
ridge of one of the highest hills of Hindhead, but the weather
was fine and the sun shining brightly. At one end this hill
is suddenly cut off by a steep hollow sweep down two hundred
or three hundred feet, with a breadth of perhaps two hundred
yards. In this hollow, which was in some degree of shelter,
all the male moths of this species in the district appeared
to be congregated, flying wildly about. For some reason
unknown, they desired to pass over the ridge, and all were
beating from side to side up the steep hollow to the top, then,
trying to pass, were instantly carried by the furious gale far
back over the valley and so tumbled ignominiously down, to
renew the strife with the same ill success. There were
certainly scores, perhaps hundreds. I struggled to the summit,
and searched as closely as possible, in so fierce a storm of wind
that I could not stand upright, but no female moth could be
found, nor any place in which one could well shelter, for a long
distance, nor did the male moths appear attracted towards
any particular spot, their object was to get over the hill, no
matter where, but their efforts were not, I fear, effective that
day! ‘The female flies probably but little, never before dusk,
but possibly at night, though its flight is rarely observed.
Common in well-wooded and heath districts all over England
and Scotland, including the Orkneys and Hebrides. In the
Orkneys Mr. Arthur Horne has found the larva in abun-
dance. Apparently not extending to Shetland, and not com-
mon in the Edinburgh and Fifeshire district. In Aberdeen-
shire, where it was formerly common, Mr. W. Reid finds that
it is becoming scarce in consequence of the attentions of the
black-headed gulls. Found in suitable places in most parts
of Ireland, often commonly, both pale and dark forms being
obtained, the latter the more plentifully, but the pale form
has been reared by Mr. C. A. Watts from larve found near
Belfast, of which the pupee remained unchanged through the

32 LEPIDOPTERA.

winter. Common all over the Continent of Europe, also
throughout Northern and Western Asia.

3. L. rubi, Z.—Expanse, male 2 inches, female 24 to
23 inches. Male foxy-red ; female red-brown or grey-brown;
each with two central pale transverse lines.

Antennee of the male of moderate length, very stout and
conspicuous, pointing forward and then curved outward ;
pectinated with very long, solid, ciliated, somewhat clubbed
teeth set closely together, and with the rows inclining toward
each other; shaft whitish-brown, pectinations red-brown.
Head small; thorax very robust ; abdomen stout but tapering
a little; all clothed with long, dense, red-brown scales, or
sometimes the front of the thorax is slightly clouded with
blackish or paler brown ; anal segments with a loose silky red-
brown tuft. Fore wings rather short but extremely broad,
very stout and strong; costa straight from the base to the
middle, where it commences to curve; apex obtuse; hind
margin slightly curved and but little oblique, with the anal
angle very full; dorsal margin curved, and with the base of
the wings clothed with long scales; deep red-brown or fox-
colour (whence the insect is commonly called the fox-moth),
with the nervures deeper red; first transverse line rather
straight, and nearly perpendicular, but not always attaining
the margins; second line very slightly curved and a little
more oblique, placed just past the middle of the wing; both
lines rather broad and conspicuous, pale yellow-brown ;
beyond the second a broad transverse space is faintly suffused
with yellowish-brown scales, the outer edge of this space
forming a sort of indented irregular line at some distance
from the hind margin; sometimes this suffusion of paler
scales is extended inward toward the base of the wing, in
other cases it is totally absent; cilia red-brown. Hind wings
rather ample ‘and more than usually rounded behind ; red-
brown ; nervures slightly darker ; cilia yellowish.

Female variable in size, usually much larger than the male ;

BOMB YCIDEZ. 33

antenne short and slender, but decidedly pectinated with
short stout teeth; pale-brown or grey-brown; thorax broad
and stout; abdomen very large and heavy ; both red-brown
or pale, or dark, grey-brown, very dull in colour; fore wings
coarsely scaled, larger and much longer than in the male,
with the margins more curved, and the hind margin much
more oblique ; reddish-brown, or grey-brown, sometimes much
shaded with ashy-grey or dark grey-brown, hardly two
specimens being quite alike; transverse lines as in the male
but rather more oblique, and in many cases having, on the
sides nearer the base of the wing, a broad shade of whitish ;
but these whitish shades vary greatly in degree, and the lines
themselves in their distance apart and consequently in their
positions on the wings; the faint edging of the shade beyond
the second line is just visible. Hind wings long, rather
thinly scaled, dull brown, nervures decidediy darker; cilia
whitish.

Underside of all the wings, in the male, red-brown or orange-
brown ; the cilia of the hind wings tinged with yellowish;
of the female dull brown or grey-brown, with a faintly
indented transverse pale line in the fore wings; body and
legs of the colour of the wings, the latter with dense tufts
of paler scales.

Besides the variation in pale shading in the male, and in
grey or brown colouring and paler clouding in the female, the
two transverse lines, as already remarked, are most unstable
in position; in the case of some females placed so far apart
as to enclose between them nearly one-third of the length of
the wing; in others, and especially in some of the males,
parallel and almost close together. In rare instances they
actually coalesce; one such is in Mr. Sydney Webb’s coliec-
tion, another in that of the late Mr. H. Doubleday, in Bethnal
Green Museum. In a female specimen in my own collection,
obtained at Belfast, both lines are absent from the right fore
wing, which has merely a whitish oblique cloud. Another
has the first line bordered outwardly with black-brown. Dr.

VOL. III. Cc

34 LEPIDOPTERA.

Mason possesses specimens of the male of a pale drab, the
locality of which does not appear to have been recorded.
On the wing in May and June.

Larva large and very conspicuous, cylindrical, densely
covered with short soft downy hair; head round, velvety
black or dark purple-brown, lobes edged with yellowish ;
dorsal half of the body dark red or tawny with the incisions
and wrinkles of the segments deep black and the edges
shaded with black; subdorsal stripe broad, black-brown, set
with purplish hairs ; under-surface dull dark-brown, legs and
pro-legs similar ; hairs of the upper portion red-brown, dark
brown below, still lower purplish-grey or blackish. When
young much less hairy, dark purple-brown, with a yellow bar
half way round each segment, giving the creature a ringed
appearance above.

June to April. On heather and other species of heath,
bramble, willow, sallow, strawberry, Rosa spinosissima,
Vaccinium myrtillus, Geranium sanguineum, Erodium
cicutarium, Polygonum aviculare and other low-growing
plants. It feeds vigorously through the summer, becoming
full grown in the late autumn, when it reposes at full length
on any plant or on the ground in the sunshine, and is
extremely conspicuous where abundant. Apparently it does
not strictly hybernate, but hides on or in the ground in severe
weather, coming out whenever the sunshine is bright and
warm; this is, at any rate, the case from January onward,
but it seems hardly to feed at this time, and when finally
roused by the warm spring weather it takes no food at all,
but basks in the sunshine, or travels in a restless manner as
though seeking a place for pupation.

Pupa thick, round and rather short, anal segment extremely
blunt, but showing anal structure with unusual distinctness ;
black-brown, with wing and limb-covers sooty black. In a
large loose cocoon of considerable length and of thin tough
texture, totally unlike those of the other two species, blackish-

.

BOMBYCIDA:. 35

brown ; usually just underground among the roots of grass
or other plants, so near the surface that the rooks sometimes
find and dig them up, leaving the emptied cocoons in
evidence.

The male moth flies in the sunshine, especially late in the
afternoon, in a wild and headlong manner, even a frantic
manner occasionally, as once when I was leaning over the
net to box a small Zortrix, one of these large insects plunged
violently into it, creating a commotion by no means favour-
able to the boxing of the small moth. Sometimes it will beat
round and across a field, or piece of common, examining every
clump of furze or of fern, exploring every hollow, and all
with a furious rapidity wonderful to see; but if it plunges
down into the herbage and does not emerge, examination of
the spot is desirable, since its partner will there, in all pro-
bability, be found. She is quite sluggish and cannot be
induced to fly in the day time, but may occasionally be seen
at early dusk exhibiting a curious swift zig-zag flight like
that of the female Hepialus humuli. She flies more frequently
at night, and has even been known to come to a strong light,
but the male appears to fly only in the day time.

The larva of this species is apt to furnish the insect
collector with one of his most reliable, and most provoking,
disappointments. When full grown it is so handsome, so con-
spicuous, and in suitable places so very common, that the
temptation to collect a large number, and endeavour to keep
them alive through the winter, is almost irresistible—and
their death the nearly invariable result. Many years ago the
late Mr. H. Doubleday furnished a receipt for avoiding this
misfortune: “To rear the larve I take a large box about ten
inches deep, with holes in the bottom for drainage, and the
top covered with wire gauze. In this box I place a turf of
heather cut to fit it. The larve are placed on the turf in the
autumn and fed till they become torpid. ‘They are left in the
garden exposed to all the changes of weather, The first warm

36 LEPIDOPTERA.

days of March bring them out, they bask in the sunshine for a
week or two, but never feed in thespring. About the middle
of April they begin to spin their cocoons.” A more simple
plan, which has been successful, is to half fill a flower-pot with
moss, placing a few larve therein; plant it in the ground, and
tie it down with gauze; but this is not very reliable, and but
few larvee can be accommodated in a flower pot. ‘The insect
has been successfully reared by the larvee being placed in a
well ventilated box containing dead leaves, in an icehouse, for
the winter; of a dozen larvee so treated, eight were reared. It
is even stated that full grown autumn larvee may be cheated
of their desire to hybernate by being confined in a place where
the temperature is continuously high—as near a stove; but in
all cases it is essential that they should have plenty of air.
When the insect is so plentiful that larvae can readily be found
in the spring—at which time they are always far more scarce
than in the autumn—it is obviously unnecessary to hybernate
them in confinement. When secured in the spring and con-
fined in a warm place they will at once spin up in sand,
among vegetable refuse, or each in a separate chip box. An
illustration of the docility of the creature at this period is
before me. A friend, not an entomologist, was riding over a
wild moor in the north of Ireland, one sunny spring day,
when he was struck with the beauty of a large caterpillar.
Looking around he discovered among the débris of some past
picnic the neck of a bottle. In this he placed the caterpillar,
plugged each end and put it into his pocket. When next
looked at, the larva had formed its cocoon, and a few weeks
later the moth duly emerged. This cocoon, in its curious
receptacle, is carefully preserved. Apparently distributed
over the whole of the United Kingdom, except the Shetland
Isles, and possibly the Orkneys; frequenting heaths, moors,
fens, rough pasture fields, and hill sides, also sea sandhills,
and apparently almost all uncultivated places. Common
throughout the continent of Europe, except the extreme
north and south; also in Siberia.

BOMBYCIDE. 37

Genus 6. ODONESTIS.

Large insects. Antenne in the male very strongly
pectinated, palpi in both sexes long and porrected; thorax
and abdomen very stout, the latter tufted in the male; wings
broad, the fore wings angulated at the tip.

We have only one species.

1. O. potatoria, Z.—Expanse of the male, 2 to 24
inches, of the female 24 to 2%. Male dull red, clouded with
yellowish ; female yellowish buff; both with beak-like palpi,
and a long oblique line running to the tip of the fore wings,
which have two small central white spots.

Antenne of the male large, stout, very conspicuous,
pectinated with long, closely-set teeth, which are regularly
curved inward at their tips, the rows inclining toward each
other; reddish-brown; palpi long, projecting forward like a
beak, and, with the head, clothed with long purplish-brown
scales; thorax broad, thickly covered with long scales,
purplish-brown in front, reddish-chocolate shaded with
yellow behind the collar; abdomen moderately stout, covered
with fur-like red-brown scales, which also form a con-
siderable anal tuft. Fore wings oblong, costal margin
rather hollowed before the middle, rounded beyond; apex
bluntly angulated, almost squared; hind margin at first
perpendicular, but from the middle rounded off with a full
sweep to the dorsal margin; dull ochreous, or yellowish buff,
much clouded with rich reddish-chocolate along the costal,
apical, and hind marginal regions, and through the middle
area; first line slender, nearly perpendicular but slightly bent
in the middle, red-brown, not conspicuous; second line
sharply marked and distinct, arising on the dorsal margin
before the middle, and proceeding with a smooth curve to the
apex, dark chocolate edged outwardly with purplish ; outside
this, from the dorsal margin to near the apex, is a curved
series of dark brown crescents placed between nervures; at

38 LEPIDOPTERA.

the end of the discal cell is a rounded, lunate, or irregular
white spot, edged with dark brown, and usually having a dark
brown centre; above it a smaller white spot also ringed with
dark brown; cilia yellowish-chocolate, darker at the tips, and
very faintly scalloped. Hind wings purplish-chocolate, with a
paler dash at the base; nervures slightly dark ; and a very
faint transverse darker chocolate shade before the middie, not
always visible ; cilia long and dense, yellowish-chocolate.

Female usually much larger and stouter; antennez short
but distinctly toothed, yellowish-brown; palpi long, pro-
tuberant, and like a conspicuous beak, covered, as are the head
and thorax, with dense yellowish-drab or brownish-ochreous
scales; abdomen very stout, thickly covered with shorter dull
yellowish scales, anal tuft small. Fore wings longer and
much larger than in the male; costa more rounded ; apex more
pointed ; hind margin more oblique ; pale drab, pale ochreous,
rich ochreous, or buff; spots and lines as in the male, but
without the marginal clouding of purplish or reddish-
chocolate; nervures reddish, distinct; and sometimes a slight
shading of reddish near the middle of the wing, more |
especially outside the long, oblique second line; cilia rather
sinuous or faintly scalloped; yellowish, sometimes tipped
with brown. Hind wings pale drab varying to ochreous,
with a distinct, transverse, purplish-brown shade in the
middle, and sometimes considerable clouding of the same
toward the hind margin; cilia pale ochreous.

Underside of the wings of the male dull pale brownish-
ochreous, generally shaded with chocolate, with a cloudy
chocolate stripe from the apex of the fore wings to the
middle of the dorsal margin, and another across the middle
of the hind wings; cilia yellowish, dappled in the fore
wings, with dark chocolate, and appearing decidedly scalloped ;
body and legs reddish chocolate, densely covered with scales.
Of the female, pale buff or pale ochreous, with the transverse
stripes faintly brown and all the nervures conspicuously
brownish ochreous; body and legs of the same colour.

BOMBYCIDE. 39

Much variation exists in the males, in the degree of dark
clouding of the fore wings, and some difference also in size,
those from the fen districts of Norfolk being particularly
large, and also very coarsely scaled. In the fens and adjoin-
ing districts of Cambridgeshire, where the insect is extremely
abundant, a form of this sex is occasionally found which is
wholly of the pale yellowish buff of the female, or even of a
still whiter buff, and in some instances these have the
nervures tinged with steely grey. Mr. H. Goss has also
obtained this form at Brighton. In specimens in which the
dark chocolate colouring is much extended over the wings
there is often a straight narrow streak or patch of the paler
colour from the white central spot’ toward the second line;
this, with the white spot, shows a curious resemblance to a
bull’s-eye lamp and the stream of light proceeding from it.
In still darker specimens this disappears, and in the extreme
west of South Wales examples are occasionally obtained in
which the whole of the fore and hind wings are of a deep
rich glossy purplish-chocolate, except the white spots, and
even these are apt to be diminished, one of my specimens
having no trace of the upper, and only one-half—forming a
crescent—of the lower. Some of these specimens, moreover,
have the nervures of the fore wings very conspicuously
blackish. Similar forms have been obtained from the coast
of Sussex, but not commonly, and Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher has
some from Sutherlandshire. In Lancashire is a variety of a
peculiar reddish chestnut colour with no tinge of purplish.
Variation in the female hardly follows that in the male, being
mainly confined to increase of the darker shading outside the
long second line, with occasionally some brownish colouring
near the costa; the hind wings also become darkened outside
the transverse shade. These forms occur more particularly
in the western districts, and on the south coast, near the sea.
In Mr. 8. Webb’s collection are two females of a very curious
dull umbreous drab; and Mr. 8. Stevens has one of a dull
dark chocolate-brown, almost as dark as any male, also

40 LEPIDOPTERA.

another of the normal colour, but devoid of the long oblique

transverse line. He has besides a very striking looking male

with a large white central spot placed in a dark costal blotch.
On the wing in July and August.

Larva large and conspicuous, of even thickness, with
numerous small tufts of hairs. Head rounded, pale grey
much striped with yellowish; body dull grey, dusted with
minute whitish atoms, and plentifully sprinkled with yellowish
dots and small spots; covered with short fine soft hairs of a
reddish brown; two tufts of stronger, longer, brown hairs on
the second segment; a still longer and thicker upright tuft
on the twelfth ; and a double row of short black tufts down
the intermediate dorsal region. Along the spiracular region
is another series of tufts of hairs, quite white, and pointing
obliquely downward so as partially to conceal the feet; legs
brown; prolegs rather spreading, dark grey ; under-surface
blackish. When it falls from its food, tightly coiled, the
white lateral tufts form a complete and conspicuous ring.
When young the colours are brighter and the dorsal region
has blue spots instead of black tufts; the second segment
then is expanded on each side and furnished with longer
hairs.

August to June, on Dactylis glomerata and other coarse
grasses, also on various species of Poa, including P. annua.
It hybernates when about an inch long; and, in both autumn
and spring, loves to extend itself on a grass culm in the
sunshine ; indeed it is, at all ages, quite conspicuous upon
the grasses. It is also very fond of water, and will eagerly
absorb a drop of dew, or water sprinkled on its food plant, and
thrives better if so supplied. On the other hand, if shut up
in any close tin box or other impervious vessel it perspires
violently, and if a number of larva are so shut up they become
drowned by saturation of the spiracles. Its common English

name is ‘The Drinker ;” its specific name indicates the same
habit.

BOMBYCIDE. 41

Pupa thick, rounded, obtuse in front and rather blunt
behind; brown. In a spindle-shaped cocoon of tough yellow
silk, attached to a thick grass-culm or other stem or stick,
usually near the ground, but often quite conspicuously. This
tough cocoon is lined within with looser softer silk. It is
strongly fixed to the culm, or stem, remains attached long
after the departure of the moth, and in some districts is
quite one of the common objects of the hedge banks.

The moth flies only at night; the male with great vigour
after dark, and till midnight, or later, coming with extra-
ordinary persistence and determination to a strong light.
The powerful lamps used for collecting in the fens attract
these moths in such numbers that rarer species are beaten
off, and some method of abating the nuisance has to be found.
This is not easy, since (like Arctia caja) they are quite in-
different to a hard pinch, and it is almost impossible even to
crush them on the soft, wet, fen mud. The female rarely
comes to light, and is not often seen on the wing; being
heavy, her flight is rather slow, and her time appears to be
occupied in sticking her eggs, a few at a time, in conspicuous,
irregular clusters, on the culms of the taller grasses.

Both sexes may be found sitting on hedge banks, or
hanging to dead grass stems among the bushes, in the day-
time, but may easily be passed over as withered leaves, the
long curved second line of the fore wings closely resembling
the midrib of a leaf, while the colour in each sex, the shading
in the male, and the lines on the nervures in the female,
greatly enhance the deception, but the female is decidedly the
more conspicuous in such a situation.

Common in lanes almost everywhere, and on grassy banks,
also plentiful on sea sandhills, but not often found in fields
except close to the hedges. Very plentiful in the south of
England, though less so in the extreme west of Wales, scarce
in some parts of the Midlands, but found in most suitable
places throughout the country to Yorkshire and Lancashire

42 LEPIDOPTERA.

at least. Also far from uncommon in the western half of
Scotland, even to Sutherlandshire, much scarcer in the
eastern half, and in Aberdeenshire and the Forth district
very rare. Local in Ireland but widely distributed, occurring
in Wicklow commonly, also in Galway, Tyrone, Armagh, at
Enniskillen, and commonly at Londonderry.

Abroad it is common in Central Europe and also found in
Piedmont, Sweden, Finland, Southern Russia, Siberia and
Tartary. The pale variety of the male, already described, has
been received from Japan, and has been named Askoldensis ;
while the rich dark chocolate-coloured form of the male,
precisely as obtained in Pembrokeshire, but with a still more
extreme variety of female—rich chocolate-red with the two
white spots expanded into handsome silvery-white blotches—
is named albomaculata.

Genus 7. GASTROPACHA.

Antennee pectinated with rather short thick teeth in both
sexes, palpi projecting in front like a short beak; tongue
small, functionless; thorax and abdomen very stout, the
latter tufted behind in the male, more pointed in the female ;
fore wings ample, hind wings short but very broad, both
scalloped at the hind margins.

1. G. quercifolia, Z.—Iixpanse of male 21} to 24 inches,
of female 3 to 3}. Wholly dark purplish-red, fore wings
with three scalloped transverse lines, hind margins all

scalloped.

Antenne rather short and thick, strongly curved back ;
closely pectinated with rather short stout teeth of nearly
equal length in both sexes; teeth black-brown, shaft black.
Palpi long and porrected, black, the base covered with the
long scales of the head, which are of a chocolate-brown;
thorax very stout and strong, densely covered with compact,
bright chocolate-brown scales, often with an indistinct

BOMB YCIDE. 43°

blackish stripe down the middle of the back, and sometimes
with another along the margin of each shoulder-flap. Abdomen
long, moderately robust in the male, very large and stout in
the female; reddish-brown, clouded with dark chocolate ;
densely covered with rather long scales, which are longer in
a lateral ridge ; anal segment with a rather large, similar tuft
in the male, and a small conical one in the female. Fore
wings of a long ovate shape, with a very long curved costa ;
apex bluntly angulated; hind margin strongly curved and
deeply scalloped between the nervures, the last excavation
running far into the dorsal margin, which is otherwise
extremely short, and rather rounded; deep rich chocolate-
brown, dusted with reddish-brown, slightly clouded with
blackish toward the costa, and with rusty-red along the
dorsal margin; first line blackish, rather short, deeply
elbowed and repeatedly angulated; second line slender,
blackish, formed into a complete series of crescents between
nervures, extending from the middle of the dorsal margin, in
a direction parallel with the hind margin, to near the costa,
where it makes a short elbow back before curving to the
costal margin ; beyond this line is a regular row of slender
purplish-black crescented shades, nearly parallel; outside
which the space before the hind margin is tinged with a
more purplish-chocolate ; at the end of the discal cell, which
is short, is a black spot, streak, or lunule; nervures rust-red,
not conspicuous; cilia reddish-brown. Hind wings rather
short but with the portion from the base along the anterior
margin strongly arched so as to protrude in front of the
fore wings when they are closed, and so form a considerable
flap or /appet, from which the moth receives its common
English name; hind margin rounded and deeply scalloped
between the nervures; purplish-chocolate, anterior margin
more rust-red; base and middle often clouded with dark
brown or blackish; across the middle are two ill-defined
blackish stripes, more distinct in the female; the space
between them often clouded with blackish so as to form a

44 LEPIDOPTERA.

faint cloudy band ; cilia red-brown. Sexes very similar, but
the female by far the larger.

Underside red-brown, nervures more rust-red, costa clouded
with blackish; but in the female this colour is extended
broadly over the under-surface of the wings; a blackish
central shade, or stripe, passes rather directly across the
middle of both fore and hind wings, and sometimes a second
appears nearer the hind margin of the hind wings ; cilia as on
the upper side; body and leg-tufts red-brown tinged with
smoky-black ; legs black.

Very constant in markings and rarely variable in colour,
but in the collection of Mr. 8. Stevens is a very light brown
specimen and another of a pale buff with the lines and shades
grey. Occasionally it is suffused with smoky-black.

On the wing in June and July.

Larva rounded, hairy, much flattened beneath, with fleshy
protuberances on each segment in a line with the bases of the
legs and prolegs, and emitting long hairs in a downward
direction ; incisions of the segments, and the sides, wrinkled ;
second and anal segments attenuated ; twelfth segment with
a small dorsal hump; head small, rounded, and hairy; the
whole of the body covered with moderately long and downy
blackish hairs. Head dark grey, dusted with ochreous ; body
dark grey dusted with blackish, incisions between the second
to fourth segments blue-black ; on the fourth to the eleventh
seoment is a series of pairs of whitish, oblique, wedge-shaped,
dorsal dashes, each dash preceded by a dull orange spot;
base of the hump on the twelfth seement shaded with dull
orange; undersurface orange, spotted with black, with a
shining black spot on each segment. The lateral tubercles
are paler below, and the hairs emitted by them form a fringe
to the sides of the larva (C. Fenn). When young more dull
in colour. Sometimes in the adult larva the ground colour is
more reddish-brown with the sides grey, or the dorsal region
is rippled with paler shades.

BOMBYCIDE. 45

July to May on hawthorn, blackthorn, willow, buckthorn
and various fruit trees ; hiding upon the bark, generally low
down, in the day time, crawling up to feed at dusk, and
feeding through the night. It feeds but slowly during the
autumn, and, while still rather small, hybernates upon the
stem of its food plant. Mr. W. Holland writes: ‘‘I had some
trouble to point them out, so well had they disposed them-
selves for the winter. They placed themselves straight along
the twigs head downwards, spun a little silk to hold themselves
firm, and, being so very flat beneath, laid so close to the twig
as to look like a part of it. They are not easy to find even
when fully grown, they are so much like the twigs and lie as
closely along them as ever. They hide often inside a clipped
hawthorn hedge where it is impossible to get at them.”
Another observer compares the young larve to bits of
dead ivy stem, left clinging to the bark, the lateral protu-
berances imitating the pseudo-rootlets of the ivy. The well-
grown larva, when stretched upon the bark of a fruit tree,
has even been mistaken for a piece of discoloured string,
such as that with which the young trees are tied to their
supports.

Sometimes the well-grown larvae are ornamented with
whitish blotches, especially on the dorsal region. Upon this
a most interesting experiment has been made by Professor
Poulton. He divided a batch of eggs of this species, and fed
one portion of the young larvee on food plants of ordinary
character, but the other portion on similar food, the stems of
which were crusted with grey lichens. The larve of the
first batch grew up of the usual dark colour, only one showing
some indication of white blotching; but the larve fed
up among the lichen-covered twigs were nearly all blotched
with white, many most beautifully and extensively so. To
produce this result, it appeared to be necessary to expose the
larvee to this peculiar influence when very young; a removal
of those on the bare twigs, when older, to twigs covered with
lichen, was productive of no observable result,

46 LEPIDOPTERA.

Pura stout, rounded, somewhat blunt behind, black-brown
thickly covered with a whitish bloom. In a long loose tough
cocoon, of dark grey silk and larval hairs, fixed strongly
to the stem of its foot-plant, among twigs pretty close to the
ground, or in any densely thick shelter.

The moth flies only at night and is rarely seen on the
wing, but the male is readily attracted by a strong light, and
may occasionally be found on a gas lamp in the outskirts of
a large town. When at rest its resemblance to a brown leaf
is extraordinary ; the projecting portion of the hind wing
looking like an oblique side of the leaf, the costa of the fore
wing like the midrib, and the remainder of the fore wing
most admirably simulating the veined and clouded surface.
Probably from this reason, combined with somewhat con-
cealed habits, the moth is rarely seen at large in the day-
time. The vast majority of cabinet specimens are reared.

Most common in the fens of Cambridgeshire, but widely
distributed ; rather frequent near Reading and elsewhere
in Berks, and at St. Ives, Hunts; and may be found in
all the southern counties, to Norfolk, Gloucestershire,
Worcestershire, and Herefordshire ; scarce in South Stafford-
shire, and very rare in Yorkshire. Apparently absent from
Scotland and Ireland. Abroad it is found in Kastern, Central,
and Southern Europe, including Spain; also in Finland,
Bithynia, Armenia, Siberia, Tartary, and various parts of
Asia Minor.

9, G. ilicifolia, Z.—Expanse 14 inch. Leaf-like; dull
reddish or purplish-brown, with two indistinct pale stripes,
and scalloped margins.

Antenne rather slender, not very short nor strongly
curved, regularly pectinated in the male, and more shortly
go in the female; light brown. Palpi rather short, forming
a very slight beak; head and thorax densely clothed with
light, or dark, brown scales; abdomen moderately stout,
paler brown, anal segment tufted. Fore wings elongated

BOMBYCIDE. 47

and rather narrow in the male, more ovate in the female;
costa but slightly curved; apex pointed; hind margin long
and obliquely rounded, regularly scalloped between the
nervures; dorsal margin deeply excavated near the anal
angle, rounded in the middle; light chestnut-brown; first
and second lines dark brown, regularly indented on each
nervure; starting near together on the dorsal margin and
running almost parallel to near the costa, where the second
line bends a little outward and almost touches the outer side
of a dark brown or blackish lunule situated at the end of the
discal cell, thence passes to the costa; a pale shade lies
between these lines and forms a rather squared spot behind
the lunule ; half-way between the second transverse line and
the hind margin, and parallel with the latter, is a regularly
indented and scalloped dark-brown transverse line, edged
broadly inside with pale brown or whitish ; outside this the
hind-marginal region is pale purplish grey. Hind wings
rather narrow, except where the anterior margin is arched so
as to project in front of the closed fore wings; apex ex-
cavated ; hind margin rounded and deeply scalloped between
the nervures; pale purplish brown, with the dorsal margin
broadly paler or whitish, and a broad ill-defined whitish
central transverse band. The scalloped margins of all the
wings are sharply marked with a slender rich brown line,
projecting at the tips of the nervures ; between these the cilia
are white. Sexes much alike, the female rather the larger.

Underside of all the wings whitish tinged with purple-
brown, and having large, lighter brown clouds toward the
front of all the wings ; cilia white, with a brown basal line;
body and legs light brown.

Apparently not variable with us. Continental specimens
usually have a tinge of bluish over the central portion of the
fore wings, which seems absent in all those obtained here.

On the wing in April and early in May.

Larva cylindrical with rather prominent prolegs; covered

48 LEPIDOPTERA.

with short soft hairs which are most abundant above the
legs; head round, light bluish-grey; body bright red-
brown, barred on the segmental divisions with blue-grey,
each bar divided, lengthwise and across, by black lines, and
having on its front portion a large black central blotch.
Front of the second segment inflated into yellowish folds ;
spiracular region dotted with black ; legs and ventral pro-
legs blue-black ; anal prolegs dark brown. Or rust-red, with
two large white spots on each segment; the dorsal line
black and expanded on each segment; or even with the
white spots almost united into subdorsal stripes, shaded with
bluish grey.

June to August on Vaccinium myrtillus; abroad, found
feeding also on various species of willow and sallow.

Pupa thickest across the wing shoulders, with the head
portion narrower; rounded, blunt, and rounded off behind ;
bluish-black shaded with brownish. In a rather large
yellowish-white cocoon among the stems of its food-plant.
In this state through the winter.

Very little is known of this insect here. The moth flies
only at night, and sits on its food-plant, or on heather, by day,
bearing a most accurate resemblance to a withered leaf. So
close is this mimicry that the first recorded specimen was
only found through the discoverer happening to kneel down
close by it to pin a small Zortriz. This occurred in 1852, on
the extensive moors of Cannock Chase, Staffordshire. About
the same time larvee are said to have been found on moors
near Sheffield and Ripon, Yorkshire. Further captures of
larvee and even of pupze in these two localities are on record
in 1855—56-59-60 and 61 and a rather unusual number in
1857 at Cannock Chase, where also single larvee were found so
recently as 1879 and 1882. Respecting this species Dr. R.
Freer, of Rugeley, writes me: “J hear that at one time the
larvee abounded on the bilberry (Vacewniwm myrtillus), and
were very easy to find. Pupe, spun up in the bilberry and

BOMBYCIDE. 49

adjacent heather were taken fairly plentifully in the winter,
and imagines sitting on adjacent palings were occasionally
met with. Its range was very restricted; a square patch on
the extreme corner of the chase on the Rugeley side, with a
half mile side, being the only place it was found in. In the
year 1879, when a school-boy, my father told me of this
moth, I having just begun to collect Lepidoptera. Mr.
W. A. Bonney, now deceased, told me where they used to
get it. I went up one day, and as far as I can recollect
found three larvee without much difficulty. I did not realise
their value and took little trouble with them, so that they
escaped in some way. In 1882 I went up again and found
one larva; my brother found another and we succeeded in
rearing one imago from these, which is still in my collection.
From this time till 1886 I did next to nothing in collecting,
but in that year I went up hoping to find “@icifolia again,
when I found that the sacred acres were sacrificed to a fir
plantation. A search in the plantation produced nothing,
and subsequent searches no better result.” From the habit
of this species, of remaining in the pupa state through the
winter, and with the cocoon so imperfectly concealed, it must
be unusually exposed to the attacks of its foes, hence doubt-
less its extreme rarity in this country, and hence also the
risk that it may have become exterminated in the district
which has been so often and so perseveringly searched for it.
But suitable localities are numerous, and so extensive in the
northern hill districts, that there is still hope of its re-
discovery. In the year 1864 a larva, believed to be of this
species, was found near Lynton, North Devon, but was not
reared. I know of no additional localities here. Abroad it
is found in most parts of Central Europe, in Sweden, Finland,
Piedmont, and in the Altai district of Siberia.

(EKutricha pini, /.—This large and handsome species—
of a more purple-brown and with a distinct white spot in
the fore wings—was formerly supposed to be native to this

VOL. III. D

50 LEPIDOPTERA.

country. A fine male was actually captured in Norwich in
1809, but was, most likely, accidently introduced. A larva,
supposed to be of this species, found upon hawthorn at
Richmond at a still earlier date, was doubtless one of the
marbled varieties of that of Gastropacha quercifolia. It was
not reared. The species under consideration feeds upon pine,
and is sometimes so abundant in pine forests on the Conti-
nent as to be a destructive pest. There is no reason to
suppose it to be a British insect.)

Family 11. ENDROMID&.
Genus 1. ENDROMIS.

Antenne pectinated in the male, slightly so in the female ;
palpi hardly perceptible; tongue atrophied; thorax and
abdomen stout, thickly clothed with very long silky scales ;
fore wings broad, oblong, variegated, thinly scaled.

Larva without hairs, sphingiform.
Pup smooth and rounded ; in a soft slight cocoon.

1. E. versicolora, /.—Expanse of male 23 inches;
of female 2? to 3 inches. Rich bright brown, with black
transverse lines, and red-brown and white blotches; female

larger and paler.

Antenne of the male rather short and stout, very strongly
pectinated, the long teeth lying obliquely forward ; shining
black. Head densely covered with scales, red-brown, with
the palpi paler, and very inconspicuous; collar broadly white
with a reddish tinge; thorax thickly covered with long,
loosely erected scales of a rich red-brown; shoulder flaps
edged with whitish-brown; abdomen moderately stout,
thickly covered with long loose red-brown hair-scales, which
are very silky and he in no special direction; anal tuft
similar, broad and fluffy. JIore wings ample, elongated,

ENDROMIDE. 51

_ almost oblong, with the costa faintly curved, apex blunt, hind
margin rather straight and oblique; anal angle rounded off;
and dorsal margin gracefully curved; pale fulvous, with a
white tuft at the base; first transverse line thick, black,
rather oblique, edged toward the base with white; second
line also black, slender in the middle, thick toward both
margins, strongly elbowed outwardly above the dorsal margin,
then curved up and proceeding almost straight to the costa,
where it is edged on the outside with white ; between these
lines, at the end of the discal cell, is a large oblique black
lunule and the central space is also varied with several
whitish clouds; at the anal angle is a wedge-shaped dark
chestnut blotch, and above it the hind marginal space is
varied with whitish dashes on the nervures; placed in an
oblique series from the apex of the wing are three wedge-
shaped pearly white spots; cilia extremely short, chestnut
brown, except where the white streaks on the nervures spread
out on the margin. Hind wings rather elongated and some-
what squared at the apex, with the hind margin rounded ;
bright fulvous, with a distinct, central, transverse, slender,
dark brown stripe, much curved in its course; toward the
anterior margin, nearer the base, is a large faintly brown
lunule ; outside the transverse stripe on the anterior margin
is a dark brown blotch followed by two white spots; some-
times fainter tawny, or even blackish, clouds form a sort of
band, parallel with the central stripe, across the wing;
cilia very short, fulvous, sometimes with brown dashes or
white clouds.

Antenne of the female shorter, regularly pectinated with
very short teeth, thorax broader, and abdomen much stouter
than in the male, the former paler brown, the latter dark
brown, much obscured with an abundance of long whitish-
brown scales, and having no distinct anal tuft; fore wings
similar in markings to those of the male, but longer, larger
and much paler, being of a delicate pale yellowish fulvous,
much variegated with whitish clouds, but more tawny at the

52 LEPIDOPTERA.

base ; the markings all broader and the pale ones whiter.
Hind wings whitish tinged with faint brownish; nervures
pale brown; central transverse stripe dark brown, but in
some instances hardly visible; outside it is the dark brown
blotch followed by two white blotches toward the apex, and a
faint, connected row of pointed dashes of a tawny colour.

Underside of the fore wings of the male dull pale tawny,
with the transverse lines and central black spot indistinct
and the whitish clouding absent, but the white sub-apical
spots very distinct; hind wings brighter tawny, with the
anterior margin whitish, the central transverse stripe, and
another near the base, both black, central lunule blackish,
and the brown and white apical blotches conspicuous ; besides
these there are faint dark-brown clouds near the hind margin ;
legs black; leg-tufts and body fulvous, except the abdominal
portion, the centre of which is whitish. Underside of the
female a repetition of the upper, but fainter in the fore wings,
more distinct in the hind.

Variation appears to exist only in the intensity of colour
and of clouding, but in some individuals the darker clouding
is almost absent. In the collection of the late Mr. H. Double-
day is a very dark male; and in that of Mr. F. Bond a female
with the hind wings nearly white. As a rule specimens
from Scotland are of deeper, richer colour than those from
the South of England.

On the wing in April, or even sometimes at the end of
March, but in the north as late as the beginning of May.

Larva much like that of a hawkmoth. Smooth and naked ;
stout behind, but tapering from the sixth segment to the
head, which is quite small; twelfth segment with a singular
pyramidal upright tubercle. Head pale green with white
stripes ; body pea-green with a slender, darker green dorsal
line, and, sloping away from it, a series of broad oblique
yellow dorsal stripes, edged with dark-green lines, proceeding
half way down the sides, or even, in some cases, as yellow

ENDROMIDE. 53

stripes, quite to the prolegs. A broader and whiter stripe
from the side of the head continues along the sides of the
next three segments. On the twelfth segment one of the
yellowish oblique stripes is followed by a broad deep yellow
one, pointing towards but not reaching the anal prolegs ;
from this a curved yellowish stripe proceeds upward to the
apex of the tubercle; legs pale greenish ; prolegs very large,
deep green with the feet crimson. Spiracles white, edged
with black ; spiracular region broadly and plentifully sprinkled
with black atoms.

When very young the larva is black with dull greenish
dots; after the first moult dull green dotted considerably
with black; at the third moult paler green. Up to this
stage it is gregarious in small companies. From this stage
the black dots disappear as the adult colouring is assumed,
and the larvee gradually scatter, to feed separately, preferring
the shade.

End of May to the beginning of July, on birch.

Pura dull brown; head portion projecting forward with a
rim-like edge, front of thorax concave, the leg and antenna
covers lying very closely in the hollow; dorsal portion ex-
tremely convex ; incisions of abdominal segments very deep ;
anal segment with a conical projection ; dorsal portion of the
abdominal segments covered with fine bristles. In a strong
tough cocoon of large size, composed of a network of silk,
through which the pupa is plainly visible. This cocoon is
concealed by being covered with moss. Mr. Buckler says
that about a week or ten days before the time of emergence
the cocoon is pushed by the pupa from a prone to a vertical
position, the upper end of the cocoon is ruptured and the
pupa protrudes its head through the opening and continues
to advance until it is exposed as far as the end of the wing
covers and remains thus until the insect emerges. For
this purpose the bristles on the abdomen are admirably
fitted in connection with the very free and mobile segments.

54 LEPIDOPTERA.

In pupa through the winter, sometimes remaining so over
a second winter, or even longer.

The male moth flies in the morning sunshine, and till
about midday. At other times it and also the female sit
upon the birch twigs or on heather, sometimes among the
latter rather low down. Mr. W. Holland’s remarks, from
personal observation, are well worth quoting: ‘‘They are
stupid, sleepy things, till the sun gets well up. Until about
10 o'clock or 10.30 a.m., I find the males hanging on the
birch twigs just as the females do, in a loose-looking way as
though trying to make themselves as much like dead leaves
as possible. If this is their object they certainly succeed.
They only appear, however, to hang loosely, for their legs are
clasped quite round the birch twigs with a firm hold, but
they allow me to pull them off like dead things. After 10
o'clock they begin to fly, and are then very active, flying
swiftly in the sunshine, rather high, but in an undulating
manner which now and then brings them within reach of the
net; if missed they dodge or hasten their pace. I never
netted one after noon, but found them at rest again on the
twigs as before, or occasionally on the heather. I have not
yet seen a female on the wing.”

Mr. W. H. Tugwell, writing a good many years ago, said :
‘“‘There is a peculiarity in the flight of this species which I
have not noticed in any other, at least tothe same extent. If
struck at and alarmed they rise up in the air at a most
furiously rapid pace, nearly perpendicularly, and continue
their ascent till beyond the power of vision; the first and
second time that I saw this I certainly was astonished.” As
I have no personal acquaintance with this species in its wild
state, I quote the observations of those more fortunate in this
respect, with peculiar pleasure. In an admirable paper upon
this species in a very early volume of the Hntomologist, by
Mr. G. Gascoyne, of Newark, which is far too long for repro-
duction here, details with regard to the larva are given, which:

ENDROMIDE. $s

have been repeatedly confirmed, and which are worthy of
close attention. ‘The eggs are placed in short double rows
on a twig of birch and are most accurately of the brown
colour of the twigs. The larvee when hatched are, as already
stated, black ; they sit in little companies, when not feeding,
upon the bark of the twigs. Now the twigs of birch are
peculiar in having curious little black roughnesses, running
into little pointed eminences. Mr. Gascoyne says: ‘‘ All are
now assembling near the tip of the twig to repose, ere they
commence feeding ; when at rest they adhere by the claspers,
the anterior part of the body being erect ; they closely resemble
in colour, shape, and size those little black stumps so common
on the twigs of the birch.” But as they feed they grow, and
obviously the resemblance to the “ little black stumps ” would
soon be useless; so when they have cast the first skin they
appear with a dull green colouring, the black colour oniy exist-
ing as small spots. ‘“ The larvee are now become of a dull green
colour, and as they sit in groups, have a remarkable resem-
blance to bunches of the birch-catkins ; it requires a practised
eye and close observation to distinguish one from the other.”
A second moult takes place, after which the larvee “ becoming
too large to derive security from their resemblance to the
catkins, disperse; their attitude and colour daily assume
more resemblance to a leaf.” As they become large the
resemblance to a half-opened leaf—the side-ribs represented
by the oblique stripes of the larva—is something remarkable.
The result of this series of protective resemblances is, in due
time, a moth which, whether male or female, is so close an
imitation, when at rest, of the position and colour of a dead
leaf or bunch of leaves that no one, except from close ex-
amination, would suspect it to be anything else. There seems
to be, in this life history, food for much thought.

During the time of flight the males can be attracted in
numbers by means of a freshly emerged female; they are
then most reckless, dashing into the heather, or the birch
trees, to the great damage of their wings. Upwards of a

56 LEPIDOPTERA.

hundred have been captured by this method in a very few
days. The female soon commences to lay her eggs, clinging
to a birch twig from below, and probably flying but a short
distance, to another suitable twig ; but she is never, I believe,
seen on the wing by day.

An exceedingly local species ; it has been found commonly
at Tilgate Forest, Sussex, also at St. Leonard’s Forest, and
near Petersfield, in the same county; probably in Surrey,
though the one specimen seen was not captured ; in Berkshire,
not uncommonly ; formerly in several parts of Suffolk, but
apparently now extinct in that county; in Herefordshire,
formerly in Worcestershire, and still existing in Wyre
Forest. In 1857 a specimen was taken at Monmouth ; it is
also found rarely in Devon and Somerset. In Scotland, more
plentiful, large numbers having been, in favourable years,
obtained in the Rannoch district of Perthshire, and in the
Altyre Woods, near Forres, Moray ; and smaller numbers
elsewhere in Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire and Argyleshire.
The record by Mr. E. Birchall of the larva at Powerscourt,
Co. Wicklow, Ireland, was, in all probability, an error; it
has never been confirmed. Abroad this species is found
throughout Central and Northern Europe, and in North Italy,
but is not generally common.

Family 12. SATURNIDZE.

Antenne pectinated in both sexes, in the male very broadly
and oppositely so; thorax and abdomen very stout, densely
covered with long soft scales. Fore wings usually elongated
at the apex; all the wings very broad and ample, usually
with ocellated, or diaphanous, spots, or both.

LaRV& with rows of divergent tufts of bristles.
Pup broad and short, in dense, strong, silken cocoons.

It is to this family that belong most of the large and

SATURNIDE. 57

handsome—in some cases magnificent—species, of which the
silk of the cocoons is used, or suggested, for the manufacture
of the stronger silk materials; many of them have trans-
parent, window-like spots on the fore wings, which are not
visible in our one species.

Genus 1. SATURNIA.

Antenne pectinated in both sexes, very broadly so in the
male, each joint having two pairs of long teeth; tongue
minute, functionless; thorax and abdomen robust, wings
broad, having ocellated spots; fore wings elongated.

1. S. carpini, W.V.; pavonia, Staud. Cat.—Expanse
of male 24 to 23 inches, of female 2? to 34. Dark, or pale,
purplish grey, with a large dark eye-spot in the middle of
each wing.

Antenne of the male rather short, stout and straight,
strongly pectinated with very long teeth, the rows of which
stand apart in nearly opposite directions and form a beautiful
object, the teeth on each side being arranged in pairs, each
pair connected by delicate rows of fine curved hairs; light
brown. Head small, dark brown; collar broad, greyish-
white or snowy-white; thorax broad and strong, densely
covered with long fur-like golden-brown scales; abdomen
short, not very stout, but tapering, similarly covered with
dark golden-brown scales; anal tuft very small. Fore wings
long and broad, with the apical portion extended ; costa
slightly hollowed in the middle but rounded beyond with a
long curve sweeping smoothly quite round the apex down the
hind margin, which also becomes slightly hollowed in the
middle, then swells into a, full curve which passes round the
anal angle to the dorsal margin; colour dark purple-grey,
exceedingly rich looking, minutely stippled, in a tranverse
direction, with paler dots and short lines; first transverse
line somewhat broad and ill-defined, rather oblique, black,

58 LEPIDOPTERA.

—~

edged on the inner side with a purple-red or red and white
stripe, which again is edged by a black stripe, shaded off
towards the base of the wing; second transverse line very
long and oblique, black, regularly scalloped between the
nervures, edged outwardly by a slender purple-red or reddish-.
white stripe, and this by a black line which disappears
toward the costa; apex occupied by a large blotch of purple
and yellow which partially encloses a large black spot on the
costa. Between the first and second lines, lying in, and
dividing, a long white blotch, is a large round ocellus or eye-
like spot, black, irrorated with blue-black, and enclosing a
complete yellowish ring, inside which is a pupil-like streak
of silvery-white, and outside it a greyish half ring. Beyond
the second transverse stripe, and parallel with the hind
margin, is a white stripe, indented at the inner edge, and
sharply defined. Margin pale golden brown, or grey tinged
with yellow. Hind wings long and not very broad, apex
rounded, hind margin rather straight, yet a little bent in the
middle ; anal angle squared and prominent; dorsal margin
rather hollowed, and clothed, as is the base of the wing, with
long golden-brown hair-scales. Colour yellowish-orange or
orange-brown, with a large central ocellus similar to that
upon the fore-wings; before it is an irregular and much-
curved cloudy black-brown transverse line, often indistinct ;
beyond the ocellus another line, slender, scalloped, and
indented ; outside which is a broad blackish transverse stripe
which does not attain the costal margin; base and dorsal
area clouded with blackish-brown ; hind margin shaded with
purplish red; nervures brownish; cilia of all the wings
extremely short, dark brown.

Female much larger and paler; antennee short, pectinated
with short stout teeth, which are not placed on opposite
sides of the shaft as in the male; light brown. Collar
broadly white; thorax very stout, covered with long fur-like
dark-brown scales; abdomen extremely stout and _ broad,
dark-brown with transverse whitish stripes. Wings all

SATURNIDE. 59

broader than in the male. Fore wings ample and with the
apex proportionately less produced ; delicate pale purple-
grey, stippled all over with paler grey; the white colour of
the collar is continued a short distance along the costa and
shades off to grey, and the remainder of the basal space is
filled by a large dark brown blotch ; markings similar to
those of the male, but broader and paler and more diffused,
except the ocellated spot, which is larger, but equally dark
and conspicuous. Hind wings also with markings arranged
as in the male, but the ocellated spot is preceded by a large
lunate white blotch, and the ground colour is white or
yellowish tinged with grey ; nervures cloudy grey.
Underside in both sexes similar to the upper, but paler,
more of a yellowish-fulvous in the male, pale purplish grey
in the female, but the hind wings in the male are of a rich
purple-crimson, with the space in which the ocellated spot is
situated white or whitish and the pale stripe before the hind
margin also white. Body and legs dull brown or whitish,
but in the female the abdomen is banded with white. This
is one of our most beautiful and striking British insects.
Variation in this species is mainly, in both sexes, in the
degree of purple-red, or almost crimson, shading, and in the
general depth of colour. It seems to be somewhat climatal,
since specimens from the southern counties of England are
usually richly and warmly coloured, the females especially
showing beautiful reddish-purple stripes and shading ; while
those from the heaths of the north are of more dull or pale
colouring. Every possible intermediate shade occurs, and
specimens from the eastern fen districts are provided with
proportionately large white blotches. In the collection of
the late Mr. F. Bond is a male devoid of the ocellated spots,
the large white blotch of the fore wings being continued un-
broken along the central space; this was reared from a larva
found feeding on sallowin Cambridgeshire. Another reared
by him, and now in the National collection, is totally devoid
of scales on the wings. Mr. H. Doubleday had male specimens

60 LEPIDOPTERA.

in which the margins of the hind wings were pale and
almost without markings ; in the collection of Mr. 8. J. Capper
is one having the pupils of the eye-spots placed rather awry,
giving the expression of a squint; another of a dark smoky-
grey with paler markings; and others having the edges of
the eye-spots somewhat angulated; in Mr. A. H. Clarke’s
collection is a female, obtained af Tunbridge Wells, entirely
of a smoky-black with still blacker markings; Mr. R. New-
stead reared, from a larva found in North Wales, a female of
a remarkably rich dark colour, with deep red stripes; and a
somewhat similar specimen has been reared by Mr. W.
Holland in Oxfordshire.

On the wing in April and the first half of May—rather
later, or even into June, in the North.

Larva cylindrical, but with the segments deeply divided,
each being rounded, and crowned by a transverse row of con-
spicuously raised spots of large size, from each of which arise
a few stiff divergent bristles. Head rounded, deep green,
sometimes streaked with black; body rich bright green, some-
times a little paler at the sides and with a vaguely indicated
spiracular pale stripe; tubercles bright yellow, pink, or
purplish, ringed with black, either separate, or joined across
the back in rows by a black line, or situated in a broad trans-
verse black stripe; legs and prolegs green. When full grown
a remarkably beautiful larva. When young black, and hairy
or bristly, with orange spiracular lines; at about half growth,
black with dull orange rings in which the black tubercles are
situated. Gradually as it grows and moults the orange rings
broaden, become dull yellow, brighter yellow, green, darker
and lighter, until the adult colour is assumed. Occasionally,
however, the black ground colour is maintained throughout.
Mr. C. W. Watts has found such specimens, full grown, but
deep black, with the usual bright coloured tubercles, among

those of ordinary colouring, near Belfast ; and others are on
record.

SATURNIDA, 61

June to August on bramble, heather, sallow, willow,
raspberry, hazle, hornbeam, blackthorn, birch, alder, the two
common species of Hrica, Spirea ulmaria and Lythrum
salicaria. Although so easily satisfied as to food, it is not
very easy to rear, but must be allowed plenty of air and
sunshine.

Pupa rather flattened, very broad, dark brown, broadest
across the middle ; bluntly rounded in front, but with rough-
nesses indicating the shape of the head; antenna cases very
strongly marked, and in the male showing the shape of
the long divergent pectinations on both sides of the shaft ;
wing cases broad and distinct, abdomen rather short ; anal
segment with a large conspicuous scutcheon of minute
hooks in rings, and behind it a line of long straight black
bristles.

In a singular flask-shaped cocoon of the toughest, firmest
silk cemented together into a hard, thin, brown case, but pro-
duced at the top to a sort of blunt point, where ends of firm
silk threads, all pointing together, make an opening from
which escape can be effected without rupture of any part of
the cocoon, but which fit so closely together at the points that
no ingress can be obtained. Spun up near the ground, at the
bases of the heather stems, or among brambles or other close
undergrowth. Well concealed and remaining in this state
through the winter.

The male of this beautiful species is extremely active in the
day time, especially in the sunshine, flying with great swift-
ness ; but is seldom seen unless a freshly emerged female is
at hand. Such an attraction, however, draws together con-
siderable numbers in suitable localities. Hven then they are
sometimes shy and hard to secure ; and they usually do not
exhibit the frantic violence shown by the last species and
by Lasiocampa quercis. The female may occasionally be
found sitting on heather, but is rarely observed to fly, and
probably does so only at night.

02 LEPIDOPTERA.

Moderately common on heaths, in marshes, osier beds, fens,
and the edges of woods, in the Southern, Hastern, and
Western counties of England, and in Wales to the extreme
west ; apparently absent from, or extremely rare in, some
parts of the Midlands, though common at Sutton Park near
Birmingham ; much more common on heaths and mosses in
Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire, and probably to be found
in such situations throughout the north of England. Also
found throughout Scotland to Sutherlandshire and to the
Hebrides and Orkneys—in the last-named islands rather com-
monly. Generally distributed in Ireland, and richly coloured,
specimens of the male from the Belfast district having the
hind wings of a remarkably clear orange. Abroad it is very
widely distributed—nearly all over the continent of Europe,
Asia Minor, Armenia, Siberia, and Tartary. In Lapland it is
small, pale, and dull-coloured in both sexes. In Spain Mr.
J. J. Walker, R.N., found it on the wing at the end of March;
‘its larva feeding in May and showing a preference for
Flelianthemum halimefolium.

Family 13. DREPANULID.

Head depressed; antennz rather short, pectinated in the
males, more shortly so or dentated in the females; tongue
minute, apparently functionless; palpi very small. Thorax
and abdomen usually slender; wings short and broad; fore
wings elongated at the apex and usually more or less hooked.

Larv# singularly shaped, not hairy, ridged on the back
and the sides; having only fourteen legs, a short horizontal
point being substituted for the anal pair.

Pup of ordinary form, in a thin cocoon among leaves.

This is a strongly marked group of comparatively small
moths; not closely connected with the preceding, though
related to the Bombycide through many intermediate

DREPANULIDE. 63

species. In the larva stage it shows a remarkable re-
semblance to the group next to follow. From the slenderness
of their bodies and the breadth of their wings the moths of
this group are likely to be mistaken by a young collector for
Geometride.

Genus 1. DREPANA.

Antennz of the male pectinated, the pectinations not
continued to the tip, which is merely dentate ; fore wings with
produced and somewhat hooked apex, and hind margin
smoothly curved ; hind wings broad.

1. D. faleataria, Z.; faleula, Schif/—Hxpanse 1} to 18
inch. Fore wings hooked; brown, with an oblique red-brown
stripe crossing to the apex, and, before it, an ovate grey-brown
blotch; hind wings paler.

Antennz of the male pectinated to near the tip, where the
teeth become prostrate and indistinct; each tooth ciliated,
dark brown; shaft paler brown. Head brown, pressed
closely to the thorax, which, with the abdomen, is slender,
light brown, the scales lying smoothly down except upon the
shoulder lappets, where they are longer and rather loose.
Fore wings broad, costa strongly arched, especially toward the
apex, which is gradually produced into a long and graceful
hook pointed at the tip; hind margin sharply hollowed
beneath it, then rounded and very full round the anal angle;
dorsal margin straight; pale brown, with three slender, much
indented and zigzagged transverse lines, all expanded upon
the costa; the third bends toward the apex in a long point
from which it turns back to the costal margin ; outside this
third line is a thick red-brown stripe, which, arising upon
the dorsal margin, proceeds with a smooth and regular curve
to the tip of the wing, where it becomes almost black ; before
this, in the middle of the wing and upon the third line is an
ovate grey-brown blotch divided by black lines ; preceding this
two black dots he longitudinally in the discal cell. Outside
the curved stripe is a fourth, very slender, brown line, nearly

64 LEPIDOPTERA.

parallel with the hind margin till it reaches the curved stripe,
which it crosses and then bends sharply back to the costa
where it also is thickened. Hind margin from the tip down
the concave portion strongly edged with black-brown, and
inside this with bluish grey, lower portion reddish brown ;
cilia short, pale brown. Hind wings ample, rounded behind ;
pale brown, costal region broadly paler; from the dorsal
margin arise four very slender indented brown lines, corre-
sponding with those of the fore wings but extending only
across a portion of the wings; just before the hind margin is
another, even more slender, dotted on the nervures and
zigzagged between them, but extending from margin to
margin ; outside this the hind margin is sharply edged with
bright brown ; cilia paler brown. Female rather larger; an-
tenn distinctly though very shortly pectinated; hind wings
paler with the costal region whitish ; otherwise similar.

Underside bright light brown; shading to deeper brown
at the apex of the fore wings; beyond the middle are two
curved transverse brown lines, those in the hind wings much
scalloped ; nervures brown; at the apex of the discal cell in
the fore wings are two indistinct purplish brown spots. In
the female paler, but showing the sub-marginal dark lines of
the upper side, legs short, neat, not tufted, light brown ;
body very pale brown.

Variation is usually very slight, merely existing in the
depth of the brown ground colour and distinctness of the
transverse lines ; but occasionally in the North of England,
and more constantly in Scotland, is found, in company with
the typical form, one in which the ground colour, in both
sexes, is brownish white, in many cases very nearly white; in
some of these the transverse lines near the base of the fore
wings are very indistinct, while in others they are sharply
accentuated, but on the underside the marginal markings
are visible in both sexes. This whitish form is even, very
rarely, found in the South of England. Mr. F. J. Hanbury
possesses one taken in Essex. In the collection of Mr,

DREPANULIDE. 65

R. Adkin is a very curious specimen, having all the markings
in the middle of the fore wings strongly developed.

On the wing in May and June, and a partial, or complete,
second generation in August.

Larva moderately stout, of even thickness except that the
last three segments taper considerably, the thirteenth ending
with a raised point and being destitute of the anal prolegs;
on the third to the sixth segments are pairs of upright
pointed dorsal tentacles. Head pale yellow, bifid, rather
flattened in front, the lobes outlined with blackish and the
mouth dark. The usual tubercles of the body faintly
whitish and each emitting a hair. Dorsal half of the body
yellow or ochreous; dorsal and subdorsal lines brownish,
interrupted ; incisions of the segments also brown; dorsal
tubercles tipped with reddish ; lower half of the body pale
green, or greyish-green, with the legs, prolegs, and hairs of
the same colour, the two body colours being separated by a
dark brown lateral line, beneath which is a black dot below
each tubercle. When younger the anterior segments are
green between the tubercles, and the remaining dorsal surface
is more purplish.

July, September, October; in two broods, on birch and
occasionally upon alder, feeding quite openly upon the
leaves, but much concealed by its resemblance to a rolled
or shrivelled young leaf.

Pura rather short and stout with a rather long curved anal
spike, dark chestnut-brown, wing- and limb-cases more purple-
brown. In a strong brown silken cocoon placed in a drawn-
together leaf, or turned-down portion of a leaf, on the tree,
the edges of the leaf firmly spun together. The pupz from
the later generation of larvee fall to the ground with the
leaves and lie through the winter.

The moth flies at night, but is easily disturbed during the
day, when it flies wildly, with a dashing erratic motion, to
VOL. II. E

66 LEPIDOPTERA,

some other place of shelter. It sits usually upon the under-
side of a leaf, though often on the upper side, on a birch-tree
or bush, and as its wings are all laid quite flatly down, the
fore wings partially concealing the hind, it bears the closest
possible resemblance to a dead brown leaf. At night it
comes freely to a strong light, the female showing equal
partiality thereto, and both may often be found on gas lamps
at night in suitable situations. Especially attached to such
sandy heaths as have a good sprinkling of birch bushes, but
also found in woods, and even hedges in woody districts, if its
favourite tree exists. Generally common in such situations
throughout the southern half of England, except perhaps in
the Midland fen districts, where it seems to be more scarce
and local. Found, though not commonly, in Derbyshire,
Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Lancashire and Cheshire, more
commonly in Lincolnshire, and in most parts of Yorkshire,
also locally in Cumberland. Apparently scarce in Wales,
but recorded from Glamorganshire, and probably to be found
elsewhere. Much more common in Scotland, in Perthshire,
Inverness-shire, in Clydesdale, and even in Ross; indeed, the
south-east appears to be the only portion of the mainland of
Scotland from which it is totally absent. In Ireland scarce
but very widely distributed; Kerry, Mayo, Galway, Donegal,
Tyrone, Londonderry and elsewhere. Its range abroad is
very wide, through Central and Northern Hurope except the
coldest regions, Piedmont, Bithynia, and Southern Russia:
also in North America, where it seems to have received a
variety of names; the ordinary typical female, from New
York and other parts of the United States, being called
fabula, while genicula stands as a name for both sexes;
another form from the United States, Canada, and Nova
Scotia, in which the ovate grey-brown spot is only repre-
sented by one or two black dots, is called arcwata, but it
agrees so accurately in every other detail with this species
that its distinctness seems very doubtful.

DREPANULIDE. 67

2. D. sicula, Schif.; harpagula, Stawd. Cat.—Expanse
14 inch.

Fore wings strongly hooked ; soft, warm, light brown with
large orange-brown central clouds, and bluish clouds edged
with black before the hind margin.

Antenne of the male strongly pectinated nearly to the tip,
the remainder filiform ; teeth grey, shaft brown. Head pale
greyish-brown tinged above with yellow; collar also yellow ;
remainder of the thorax pale brown, rather smooth ; abdomen
short, light brown. Fore wings rather elongated and with a
long, curved, hooked tip; costa a little arched at the base,
then very straight for two-thirds of its length, but strongly
arched toward the apex ; hind margin deeply hollowed below
the tip, then suddenly rounded and curving quite round the
anal angle ; dorsal margin very straight. Colour pale yellow-
brown, much suffused with glistening purplish scales which
give it a soft, warm, hue; first line indistinct, angulated,
yellow-brown ; second line similar in colour, more oblique and
much scalloped ; between these is a large irregularly pear-
shaped yellow-brown blotch, extending from the subcostal
nervure to the subdorsal, and containing in its broad upper
portion two large yellowish spots which are cut up by the
brown nervures. Outside the two middle scallops of the
second line are two crescents formed by parallel lines of black
atoms enclosing bluish clouds; opposite these are two more
black crescents edged with blue, placed the opposite way, and
beyond these a row of five cloudy black crescents; between
which and the hind margin the space is filled by a bluish
cloud divided by the nervures; hind margin, from the apex,
edged with a strong black line; cilia pale brown intersected
by a darker line. Hind wings rounded except at the anal
angle ; pale golden-brown suffused with glistening silvery-
purplish scales except toward the costal margin, where the
colour softens to pale yellowish; nervures browner; near the
base is a curved yellow-brown transverse line, and in the

68 LEPIDOPTERA.

middle another, considerably indented, both rather indistinct ;
before the second is a faint double discal blotch of the same
colour; cilia paie fulvous with a dark brown basal line.
Female with the antenne threadlike; slightly larger and
paler, otherwise similar. Underside of all the wings bright
light ochreous, without markings, except that the cilia
of the fore wings are blackish; body and legs ochreous-
brown.

Little or no variation has been observed, in this species,
with us; but it seems here to have in some degree deterio-
rated from the typical characters, as regards, at least, the
hind wings. Between the two faintly brown transverse lines
of these wings, and in contact with the second, there is, in
Continental examples, a large blotch of a delicate warm fawn
colour, within which are two or three small, pale yellow spots,
and just beyond the second line a pair of distinct, round,
black dots, the lower being the larger. These yellow spots and
black dots are nearly always obsolete in British specimens,
and in the very rare instances in which the latter are faintly
visible they are placed more closely together than in those
from abroad. No corresponding discrepancy appears in the
fore wings.

On the wing in the middle of June, but has been met with
from the end of May to July. One specimen has been reared
in October in confinement.

Larva one inch long, moderately slender ; head large and
broad, deeply cleft above, flattened in front ; pinkish, with the
lobes outlined and dotted with brown, and some brown spots
on the face ; fourth segment with an elevated dorsal process,
or hump, of a brown colour, divided into two blunt tubercles
tipped with yellow; anal segment without prolegs, but pro-
duced into a long tapering point, curved a little upwards ;
thoracic segments yellowish-brown, blotched on the back with
crimson-brown ; behind the tubercles the colour of the back
and sides is of a brilliant deep yellow, with minute elongated

DREPANULILE. 69

dark brown freckles indicating the dorsal and subdorsal lines,
and a dark spot on each side of the twelfth segment; the
under surface, the legs, and some portions of the sides are
pink, deeply tinged and freckled above with dark crimson-
brown, which fluctuates in height along the sides in two long
arches from the spiracular to the dorsal regions. When very
young, dark chocolate-brown, changing to russet-brown, and
as it grows the yellow colour of the back gradually appears
in dots, bars, and then patches, and the mature appearance
is quite gradually assumed. (Condensed from Buckler.)

Mr. Buckler further points out that Hiibner in his great
work gives two figures of larve under the name of sicula.
One has two tubercles and is correct, the other has eight and
is that of D. faleula. In copying from Hiibner the mistake
has, elsewhere, been made of selecting the wrong larva!

July to September or October on Tilia parvifolia ; when
very young feeding only on the upper surface, afterwards
eating long narrow passages into the middle of the leaf from
near the footstalk.

Pupa rounded and tolerably even in thickness to near the
anal segment, which is prolonged into a spike bearing several
curved bristles; rust-red, covered with a soft adhesive white
powder or bloom. In a cocoon of tough silk, containing
small apertures as though for admission of air, placed in a
drawn-together lime leaf. In this condition through the
winter.

A rare species and excessively local in this country.
Discovered in 1837, when a single specimen was secured in
Leigh Woods near Bristol; two more were found in the same
place in 1856, several more in 1861 and one in 1873. In
1874 and for many following years a more systematic search
was made by Mr. W. H. Grigg and others, a few being
taken every year, and some also reared from the egg and
from captured larve. From 1887 to 1891 I find no record,
but specimens have since been met with, and there are good

70 LEPIDOPTERA.

reasons for hoping that it will not readily be exterminated in
this, its one locality. The moth is one of the most sluggish of
Lepidoptera ; apparently it hardly ever flies of its own free
will. Almost all that have been captured have been found
sitting on the leaves of lime bushes or trees, and beating these
bushes is hardly of use, since the moths drop, or flutter feebly
to the ground. Even when reared and kept for pairing the
male only flutters round a little about dusk, and it appears
to be impossible to obtain males by the attraction of a bred
female. Unfortunately the larvee are difficult to rear from
the egg, as they sometimes refuse to taste their food. The
habit of the moth is usually to lay its eggs along the edge of
a leaf, and the larve prefer to gnaw at once into the tip
or edge when they leave the egg. If once persuaded to eat
there is no great difficulty in rearing them. The only food
which they can usually be induced to accept in this country
is the small-leaved lime (7ilia parvifolia), but on the
Continent this species is stated to feed also upon birch, oak,
common lime, and even beech, and to go through two
generations in the year. I am much indebted for information
upon its life-history to Mr. G. C. Griffiths of Bristol.

The only locality in which it has hitherto been found in
these Islands is that already indicated, Leigh Woods, Bristol.
Abroad it is very rare in Switzerland, more common in
Germany, Belgium, Eastern France, Hungary, Livonia and
some parts of Russia, but apparently not met with in plenty
anywhere.

3. D. hamula, Hsp. ; binaria, Staud. Cat.—Expanse 1
to 13 inch.

Yellow-brown ; fore wings rather hooked and having two
slender yellow transverse lines and two central black
dots.

Antenne of the male strongly pectinated two-thirds of
their length, remainder threadlike; pectinations blackish ;
shaft glossy golden-brown. Head orange-yellow ; thorax

DREPANULID. 71

very round, smooth, dull brown, with the collar yellowish ;
abdomen slender and short, brown, tinged with yellow on
each side and having minute projecting lateral tufts of
yellow scales. Fore wings with the costa slighty arched at
the base, strongly so beyond the middle; apex produced to a
blunt curved point, almost hooked; hind margin beneath it
much hollowed, then straight, the anal angle being rather
squared ; dorsal margin straight ; colour golden-brown, much
irrorated, especially toward the base, with minute transverse
blackish streaks of atoms; first transverse line slightly
angulated, second rising perpendicularly from the dorsal
margin, then bent toward the apex, but returning to the costal
margin, both yellow, very slender and not margined ; between
these lines, at the ends of the divided discal cell, are two
ill-defined black spots ; hind margin, below the tip, clouded
with black ; cilia deep red-brown. Hind wings rather long,
rounded from the costal margin but with the anal angle
squared; golden-brown, with two very slender yellow trans-
verse lines, the first near the base, the second in the middle
of the wing ; between them are two very faintly black spots ;
cilia dense, golden-brown. Female larger, with threadlike
antennz ; fore wings slightly paler, with the lines and dots
rather more distinct, and the dark shade below the apex
broader and blacker; hind wings very pale fulvous, or dull
yellow, tinged with brown along the dorsal margin, where are
slight indications of the two transverse lines and of a third
near the anal angle, these lines seeming to divide the brown
shade into faint transverse bands. In both sexes there is, in
some specimens, a faint indication of a scalloped line of dark
shades edged with yellowish near the hind margin of fore or
hind wings, or both. Underside in both sexes glossy pale
fulvous or ochreous, without markings, but with the apex and
hind margin of the fore wings slightly darker. Hardly
variable except a little in the depth of colouring, but speci-
mens of the second generation are commonly smaller than
those of the first,

72 LEPIDOPTERA:

On the wing at the end of May and in June; and again
in August and the beginning of September, in a partial
second generation.

Larva stout, head divided, flattened in front, larger than
the second segment; fourth segment with a bifid dorsal
eminence ; anal prolegs absent, extremity terminating with
a sharp point. Colour pale ochreous; dorsal line slightly
darker but only extending to the protuberance on the fourth
segment; head yellowish, edged with a purple line on each
side, which is bordered outwardly with yellowish ; anterior
segments purplish, to, and including, the dorsal hump.
From the head a yellowish line on each side join together
on the sixth segment, branching off to the top of the dorsal
hump; from the seventh seoment they divide again, and then
meet on the eleventh, forming a large diamond-shaped
yellowish dorsal marking; from the eleventh segment they
again separate, forming two oblique lateral bands, and are
continued to the tail. The sides beneath the lateral lines
are shaded with pale chocolate-brown, as is also the anal
extremity; on the twelfth and thirteenth segments is a
dark diamond-shaped spot. Legs, prolegs and under surface
ochreous. (C. Fenn.)

When at rest it draws in its anterior segments, raising the
fourth, with its tubercle, and also the hinder extremity, and
has a very humped appearance.

End of June and July, and again in September, on oak.

Pura moderately stout, rather short, light-brown, densely
covered with white powdery bloom. In a strong cocoon of
brown silk, in a small oak leaf tightly drawn together and

strongly united at the edges. In this condition through the
winter.

The moth sits in the daytime in oak-trees, on the leaves,
and generally in the higher parts of the trees. It may some-
times be disturbed by beating, and more frequently by

DREPANULIDE. 73

throwing sticks into the trees, and males, when so disturbed,
will pugnaciously follow an object thrown into the air, and
so descend within reach. Occasionally it may even be seen
flying about the upper branches of oak-trees in the afternoon,
but its proper time of flight is at night, and both sexes are
readily attracted by a strong light; indeed, it was formerly,
by no means a rare circumstance, even in the outskirts of
London, to find them sitting quite flat, with wings outspread,
the fore wings orly partially covering the hind, upon a gas
lamp. Usually a wood-frequenting species, or else widely
spread over well-wooded districts, always among oak; never
plentiful, but widely distributed in nearly all the southern
and eastern counties, though rare in Devon, and apparently
not recorded from Cornwall. I find no record of its occur-
rence in Wales, though it can hardly be absent from the
eastern portions; especially as it is moderately frequent in
Gloucestershire, preferring the long narrow strips of wood-
land among the hills, and is also recorded from Worcester-
shire and Herefordshire. Records from the Midland counties
north of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire appear to be
very rare, though it has been found at Knowle in Warwick-
shire, and its most northern known locality with us seems to
be Lincolnshire. It is not known to occur in either Scotland
or Ireland.

Abroad it is found over the greater portion of Central and
Southern Europe and in Asia Minor.

4A. D. unguicula, Aiib.; cultraria, Staud. Cat.—
Expanse 1 to 12 inch.

Apex pointed, hardly hooked; wings yellowish, with a
broad brown central band.

Antenne of the male strongly pectinated four-fifths of
their length, tip filiform; shaft light brown, teeth black.
Head yellow-brown, small ; thorax ovate, smooth, light brown ;
abdomen short, slender, pale yellow-brown. Fore wings with
the costa regularly rounded to near the apex, where it is

74 LEPIDOPTERA.

strongly arched; tip produced, pointed, curved and almost
hooked ; hind margin below it hollowed, then slightly rounded,
and rather full toward the anal angle, which is somewhat
squared; dorsal margin slightly rounded; colour light
yellowish-fulvous tinged with brown ; first line brown, slightly
curved, edged inwardly with yellowish; second line brown,
curved outwards, but bent back to the costa, edged outside
with yellowish ; the space between these two lines filled up
with umbreous, and forming a broad light brown band, in
which is a dark brown dot at the apex of the discal cell;
hind margin below the tip brownish with a slender yellowish
edging; cilia dark brown, with a yellow line at the base.
Hind wings very pale fulvous, with a partial, transverse, pale
umbreous band, darker at the margins, situated before the
middle, and two faint, ill-defined, abbreviated brownish bands
near the anal angle. Female rather larger and paler, with
simple antenne, otherwise similar. Underside bright ochreous
without markings ; cilia below the apex narrowly brownish
or smoky black ; body and legs pale ochreous.

Hardly variable, except a little in the depth of ground
colour of the wings, which sometimes is nearly as dark as
that of the central band.

On the wing at the end of April, and in May and June;
also in a second generation at the end of July and in
August.

Larva rather slender, attenuated to the anal segment,
which is without prolegs and terminated by a sharp spike.
Head iarge, the top bifurcated; on the fourth segment is a
small hump; posterior segments raised horizontally. Red-
dish-brown, tinged with yellowish on the anterior segments,
and with darker, or olive-brown, on the sides; dorsal line
darker, threadlike ; a conspicuous stripe of white lines, start-
ing from the spiracular region immediately behind the head,
curves upward to the dorsal line on the fifth and sixth
segments, there uniting and forming a white patch, edged

DREPANULIDE. 75

beneath with dark olive or blackish-brown. This dark colour
is continued on the sides, and encloses a large diamond-
Shaped paler blotch extending from the sixth to eleventh
segment; the remaining posterior segments darker with a
whitish lateral line. Head yellowish-brown, dusted with
red-brown ; under surface and legs very pale brown or whitish
ochreous, tinged with greenish. (C. Fenn.)

June and July, and as a second generation, in September
and October. On beech (Fagus sylvatica).

PupPa moderately stout, tapering considerably to the tail,
which is fixed by anal hooks to the cocoon; dull dark bluish-
grey with whitish efflorescence ; incisions dull orange. Ina
dense cocoon of soft whitish silk tinged with orange, spun in
the angle formed by a turned-down leaf, or between two
leaves. (C. Fenn.)

Remaining in pupa through the winter.

The male flies about beech-trees in the daytime, sometimes
high up, at others visiting the lower boughs. Both sexes fly
after dark, but are strictly confined to the neighbourhood of
the beech-woods, and usually to those which grow in chalk
districts. When not flying it is not difficult to disturb them,
in the daytime, by shaking or beating the leafy portions of
the branches with a long stick, since the moth, like its allies,
sits flatly upon a Jeaf. Common in beech-woods in Kent,
Essex, Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and
Oxfordshire, and doubtless in Hants, Wilts, and Dorset.
Also found in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hereford-
shire, Gloucestershire and Somerset, though perhaps not so
commonly, and in Devon local and rare. This appears to be
the extent of its range in these Islands. Abroad it is common
in beech-woods throughout Central Europe, also in Piedmont
and Asia Minor.

76 LEPIDOPTERA.

Genus 2. PLATYPTERYX.

Antenne in both sexes pectinated to the tip; fore wings
hooked and with the hind margin toothed and _ scalloped ;
hind wings broad.

We have but one species.

1. P. lacertinaria, Z.; lacertula, Schiff: — Expanse
1} to 14 inch. Fore wings light brown, with two darker

brown lines, tip hooked, hind margin toothed; hind wings
whitish.

Antenne of the male rather shortly pectinated throughout ;
pale brown ; head light brown ; thorax narrow, smooth, pale
brown ; abdomen short, rather slender, greyish-white. Fore
wings arched at the base, thence rounded with a long curve
which becomes more decided toward the apex, the latter
being bent down into a produced and blunt hook; hind
margin hollowed below the apex, and then rounded, but
having scalloped hollows and rounded projections throughout,
except at the anal angle; dorsal margin gently rounded.
Colour pale brown, with the nervures rather darker and the
whole surface reticulated with very delicate transverse brown
lines ; first and second transverse lines nearly straight, but a
little bent back to the costa, oblique and nearly parallel ;
the space beyond the second tinged with darker brown,
darkest toward the margins; between the two lines at the
apex of the discal cell is a black dot; costal margin toward
the tip, and also the hind margin, especially round the pro-
jections, edged with dark brown, and the latter having
blackish cilia, while those of the hollows are white. Hind
wings rather long, hind margin undulating, almost scalloped ;
apex rather angulated ; anal angle squared; white, tinged
with brown, especially toward the hind margin, which is edged
with a dark brown line; cilia mixed, brown and white.
Female with the antenne very shortly pectinated throughout,
rather larger and stouter, otherwise similar.

DREPANULIDE. 77

Underside of the male white, with the costal region and
hind margin of all the wings tinged with brown; a black
central dot on all the wings, and a faint indication of a darker
line from the costa; hind margins edged with blackish,
especially on the projections of the fore wings; intermediate
cilia white; legs rather short, pale brown, thickly clothed
with scales; body pale yellowish. Female similar, except
that the hind wings have a more yellow-brown tint.

Variation in this species is usually confined to the depth of
ground colour and to the greater or less amount of reticula-
tion of delicate brown lines. In some cases this is almost
absent and the colour approaches yellow, while in other
instances, especially in the north, the reticulations are so
abundant and so dark that the whole surface of the fore
wings is of a dark grey-brown. In Mr. J. E. Robson’s
collection is a male of this dark colour, but with a broad ill-
defined white stripe before the hind margin and the cilia of
the fore wings very strongly ornamented with bright white
crescents. Another phase of variation is in the distance
apart of the two transverse lines on the fore wings, and in
Mr. Sydney Webb’s collection is one in which they nearly
unite.

On the wing in May and June, and, as a partial second
generation, in August.

Larva warty, wrinkled; head bifid, orange-brown with
whitish markings ; third and fourth segments each with two
bifid dorsal protuberances, and a smaller bifid eminence on
the twelfth ; anal prolegs absent, replaced by a small pro-
jecting, horizontal, red tail. Body pale yellowish-brown,
shaded into reddish on the back and sides, all the usual spots
slightly raised, frequently bifid, and clouded with dark
brown ; dorsal line a row of brown spots; subdorsal lines
similar but less distinct. (C. Fenn.) This larva presents a
most curious resemblance (in miniature) to a male Triton or
newt (Lacerta). Hence the name of the moth.

78 LEPIDOPTERA.

At the end of June and in July; as a partial second
generation again in September and October. On birch.

Pupa pale red, covered with a white bloom. In a strong
cocoon of whitish or yellowish silk within the hollow of a
living leaf, which is drawn together and carefully joined at
the edges, except a small open space at the footstalk. Passes
the winter in this state, the leaf falling to the ground.

- The moth flies voluntarily only at night. In the daytime
it hides in bushes, not by any means always in birch bushes,
or sits underneath them on a grass blade ora twig. Its wings
are not spread out at all, but very strongly arched when at
rest, the hind wings being completely covered, and the fore
wings so drawn together as to give it the strongest possible
resemblance to a curled, dead, birch-leaf. Found principally
in woods, and on heaths with scattered birch-trees, over the
greater portion of the southern counties to Devon, where it
becomes scarce. Also rare or absent in the Cambridge and
Norfolk fen districts, Rather frequent at Cannock Chase
and other parts of Staffordshire, and in woods in Warwick-
shire, Worcestershire, and Herefordshire ; scarce in Cheshire,
Derbyshire, and Lincolnshire, and very local in Lancashire,
Yorkshire and Cumberland. In Scotland it is found in
Clydesdale and in Argyleshire, also very locally in Ross.
Widely distributed and sometimes rather common in Ireland,
though local, occurring in Wicklow, Kerry, Galway, Donegal,
Londonderry, Down, and elsewhere. It is common nearly
all over Northern and Central Europe, including Lapland,
Piedmont, and the Ural Mountain district. In North America
it is also found, but of the colour of its paler varieties
with us, and is known under the name of bilineata.

This species seems to stand alone in a remarkable manner.
So far as I am aware, no other species of this group, having a
scalloped hind margin, exists in the world.

DREPANULIDZ. 79

Genus 3. CILIX.

Antenne of the male pectinated to the tip, of the female
dentate; fore wings with the apex elongated, rounded, not
hooked ; hind wings narrow. Wings drawn in to a vertical
position in repose.

The little species which follows is the sole representative
of this genus, and, like the last, has no near allies, the
numerous exotic species placed in the same family being very
different in appearance.

1. C. spinula, Schiff; glaucata, Staud. Cat—Hxpanse
? to l inch. Wings rounded at the apex, white; fore wings
with a bluish-brown blotch on the dorsal margin, surmounted
by a large brownish egg-shaped cloud.

Antenne of the male short, but strongly pectinated to the
tip with short, stout, curved teeth, brown, with the shaft white.
Head closely pressed down, blackish, with a white line across
the top; thorax slender, white ; abdomen short and small,
grey, with the base and apex white. Fore wings long,
expanded at the apex, principal nervures thickened ; costa
gently rounded in a long flat curve to the tip, which is
very blunt; hind margin also very gently curved, but long
and oblique, the curve sweeping round the anal angle ;
dorsal margin nearly straight. Shining white, without the
smallest indication of the two usual transverse lines ; on the
dorsal margin is a large ovate tawny blotch, obscured by
broad bands of glistening, steely, bluish scales; above, and
joining this, is a large oblique ovate blotch occupying the
whole middle of the wing, of a very pale greyish-brown and
containing silvery streaks on the nervures ; outside this is a
series of pale smoky-grey clouds, scalloped in accordance
with a line of darker grey lunules, lying in white spaces
along the hind margin; cilia long, white. Female with
filiform antennz, otherwise quite similar. |

Underside of the fore wings white, extensively tinged, on

80 LEPIDOPTERA.

the costal and ,central area, with smoky-black, and having
large smoky-black lunate markings along the hind margin ;
hind wings white, legs and body smoky-erey.

Not usually variable except in the depth of colour of the
markings, but a specimen in the collection of the late Mr. F.
Bond has scarcely any indication of the ovate central blotch.

On the wing in May and the beginning of June, and, as a
second generation, at the end of July and in August.

Larva stout, swollen in front, thickest at the fourth
segment, thence tapering; head small, projecting over the
second segment; third and fourth segments each with two
small dorsal tubercles; no anal prolegs; anal segment ter-
minating in a sharp spike. Colour reddish-chocolate ; dorsal
line, tubercles, and underside of the tail darker ; head dark-
brown, face paler; a large oval paler spot, often very indis-
tinct, lies over the fourth to the sixth segments, and is
continued, faintly, as a narrow band to the tail. A white
spot lies between the two projections on the fourth segment,
and two white lines margin the darker anal segment, which is
tipped with dark brown. The dorsal line ends in a dark
spot on the eleventh segment; there is a raised lateral line
from the head to the fifth. (C. Fenn.)

In June and the beginning of July, and, as a second
generation, in September and October; on hawthorn, apple,
pear, and mountain ash. When young eating only the upper
surface of the leaves and making brown blotches. When
more grown feeding in the ordinary manner.

Pupa.—Head very blunt; abdomen tapering; tail blunt
with a short spike. Wing-cases dark grey with a blue efflor-
escence; abdomen pale red; incisions brown. In a thin,
tough, brown, silken cocoon among leaves or in crevices of
bark. Pupa very lively, if disturbed it makes a noise by
friction against its cocoon. (C. Fenn.)

The moth flies at night about hedges as well as wocds, and
is readily attracted to a light, and very gentle, sitting down

NOTODONTIDEZ. 81

at once on a gas lamp and folding its wings down as closely
together as a shut book, remaining in the same position for
hours. In the daytime it sits in a similar position, or with
the wings hardly so closely drawn together, upon a leaf, and
bears a wonderful resemblance to a morsel of the excrement
of a bird. Generally distributed throughout England and
Wales, and plentiful in the more Southern districts, rare in
the extreme west of Wales. Apparently confined to the south
of Scotland, since I have no records beyond Roxburghshire,
Clydesdale, and the Forth district. In Ireland it is found
near Dublin, in Wicklow, Westmeath, Galway, King’s County,
Armagh and Tyrone, but not commonly, in some of these
districts even rarely. Abroad in many parts of Central
Europe, in the South of France, Spain, Italy, Corsica,
Sardinia, Dalmatia, Greece, Southern Russia, various parts
of Asia Minor, the hill districts of India, and in North
America.

Family 14. NOTODONTIDZ.

Tongue small and slender, not spiral, usually in separate
filaments, apparently functionless ; antennee usually less than
one half the length of the fore wings, pectinated in the male,
either more shortly so, or simple, in the female ; thorax stout,
covered with loosely raised scales ; abdomen moderately stout,
blunt, tufted in the male. Fore wings rather long and narrow,
or somewhat long-ovate, in very many species having a
projecting tuft of scales on the dorsal margin ; hind wings
rather short and not very ample.

Larv naked, or in a few instances downy; most variable
in form, sometimes extremely grotesque; having either sixteen
or fourteen legs; hinder portion usually, and the head in
many cases, raised during repose. Feeding on leaves of trees
or shrubs.

Pup of ordinary moth shape, ina hard cocoon on bark ; or
VOL. Il. F

82 LEPIDOPTERA.

more usually, subterranean, in a cocoon of soft silk and earth ;
occasionally without any cocoon.

With this family, the last of the Bombycina, we leave the
comparatively heterogeneous forms having wings of all
manner of breadths, and settle down to a series of genera of
which the fore wings and other details of structure show a
considerable approximation to the characters of the next
great group, the Noctuina. But in habits and general struc-
ture they seem most emphatically to belong to the present
(the Bombycina) group, to which they are usually assigned.
This relationship in habits especially shows itself in their
extreme sluggishness during the hours of rest, usually con-
trasted with great activity and even violence when aroused
by darkness ; the ease with which they may in most instances
be paired, and induced to deposit their eggs; and their
absolute indifference to the attraction of flowers, or food of
any kind, in the imago state. But even in the daytime
artificial darkness effectually rouses them, and the conse-
quence of shutting up an insect of this group, a male
especially, alive in a pill-box or chip-box, when captured, is,
as the young collector soon discovers, that the creature beats
its wings to fragments, and is totally spoiled.

Genus 1. CERURA.

Antenne pectinated in both sexes with separate teeth,
which are ciliated with minute hairs. The tips of the pecti-
nations curled toward each other in the males, and the
antennee themselves usually curled when dry; tongue short
and flat; body stout, softly downy beneath; fore wings
rather narrowly ovate, thinly covered with scales; hind
wings very short. First pair of legs with a compressed lobe
upon the tibiz.

Larv® glossy, grotesque. naked, head flattened, anal pro-
legs absent ; anal segment having two long points projecting

NOTODONTIDZ. 83

backward, forming hollow tubes which each contain a whip-
like process.

Pup in hard cocoons upon the bark of trees.

1. C. bicuspis, £kh.—Expanse 14 to 12 inch.

Creamy-white; back of thorax, central band, and sub-
apical space of fore wings, purple-black; white area much
dotted with black.

Antennz of the male densely pectinated, the teeth solid,
black and so closely curled-in that their tips meet or cross
each other, shaft whitish; head snowy-white, with downy
tufts at the bases of the antennz ; there is a black spot at
the junction with the thorax above. Collar broad and deep,
occupying the whole front of the thorax, and covered with
long curved scales, pale yellowish or creamy-white, re-
mainder of the thorax covered with broad curved transverse
dark brown bands so that it seems wholly black-brown
except at the margins and some faint intermediate spaces of
creamy-white. Thorax and abdomen both stout, the latter
grey, covered with white scales, more densely so at the sides,
and having a creamy-white anal tuft. Fore wings long and
narrow ; costal margin straight to near the tip where it
is rounded, the curve passing smoothly round the somewhat
elongated apex; hind margin oblique, very gently and
smoothly curved, the curve passing, in one sweep, round the
anal angle and dorsal margin; clear creamy-white ; a black
dot on the subcostal nervure near the base is followed by a
perpendicular transverse row of four or five similar dots just
before the first line, which is black and forms the inner edge
of a purple-black transverse band, variable in width, extend-
ing on the dorsal margin to the anal angle but tapering
through the middle of the wing and again suddenly widening
as it approaches the costa. Before the tip of the wing is an
elongated purple-black blotch extending from the costa
inward ; between this and the central band are three black

84 LEPIDOPTERA.

spots on the costa, from the outer two of which arise black,
indented, irregular, slender, transverse lines, both of which
lose themselves in the broad dorsal portion of the transverse
band ; a third such line arises from the subapical blotch and
zigzags to the anal angle. At the apex of the discal cell is a
black spot, and on the hind margin a regular row of round
black dots; cilia white. Hind wings short and rather
narrow, semi-transparent; whitish, with faintly brownish
nervures; a cloudy lunate spot at the end of the cell, and
beyond it a faint greyish cloudy transverse band; hind
margin rather sinuous, regularly spotted with black, the spots
becoming cloudy and confluent near the anal angle; cilia
white.

Female with the antennz very shortly pectinated, the teeth
often deflected, or prostrate, along the shaft, and indistinct,
body stouter; hind wings rather more smoky-white; the
black spot at end of the discal cell much smaller, sometimes
a mere dot; otherwise similar.

Underside white; fore wings extensively banded and
blotched with pale smoky-purplish, especially under the dark
markings of the upper side; hind margins of all the wings
strongly and sharply spotted with black; body covered with
very soft downy white scales; legs purplish-black in front,
but heavily tufted with white scales.

Usually not variable, but a specimen in the cabinet of Mr.
Sydney Webb has the central band narrowed, deeply in-
dented, and nearly divided in the middle; and one in Mr.
Arthur Robinson’s collection is a most exquisite specimen,
having no indication of either central dark band or of
the subapical blotch except that their margins exist as
slender lines. Both were obtained in Tilgate Forest.

May, and to the middle of June.

Larva rather stout ; head flattened in front and partially
withdrawn into the squared flat front of the second segment,
which is large and conspicuous; fourth segment rather

NOTODONTIDZ. 85

shouldered ; body somewhat flattened on the back and sides,
tapering to the tail, where are two rather short, straight
points or tentacles, abundantly roughened with minute points
at their base ; and above isa short point. Head dark reddish-
brown, mouth paler; at the back of the head commences, on
the second segment, a broad rich reddish-brown dorsal blotch,
which runs to a point on the back of the third segment, where
is a slight elevation ; on the fourth it recommences and becomes
broader on each segment to the eighth, where it extends below
and encloses the spiracles, thence it narrows to the tenth,
continuing on the eleventh and twelfth as a broad stripe, and
widening on the thirteenth, where it again narrows to the
tentacles; in the broad portion of this dorsal marking are
faint indications of two or three orange spots; on each
side it is broadly edged with pale yellow, and on the sixth,
seventh, and eighth segments its margin is deeply indented.
A faint double dorsal darker line is just visible. Sides of the
body and under surface brilliant, velvety, yellow-green, with
faintly dotted indications of spiracular lines; spiracles green,
faintly outlined with black; legs red; prolegs yellow; under
surface and prolegs sprinkled with minute red-brown spots
ringed with yellow. (Buckler.)

July to the middle of August on birch and alder, eating the
leaves, and usually resting on the upper side of a leaf.

The confusion among authors as to this larva is very great.
This has been completely exposed by Mr. W. F. Kirby in the
pages of the Entomologist. Hven the figure in the most
recent German illustrated work (1893) is inaccurate. The
specimen from which Mr. Buckler made his figure and
description was furnished by the collector (Mr. Tester) who
has probably reared more examples of this species than have
been obtained by any other person in this country; it was
found on birch in Tilgate Forest, and there is no room for
doubt as to its accuracy.

Pura undescribed ; in ahard cocoon of silk and raspings of

36 LEPIDOPR DEA.

bark, placed on the surface, or in a chink, of the bark of the
tree upon which the larva has fed; but so accurately
resembling its surroundings that it can very rarely be
discriminated from the bark. In pupa through the winter.

The moth sits upon the trunks of birches or alders in the
daytime; but flies at night, and has been known to come to
the attraction of a strong light. Very little, however, is known
of its habits, and probably hardly a specimen has been taken
on the wing here. Always a rarity, its most favourite resort
in the South of England being Tilgate Forest in Sussex.
Four or five specimens are recorded as having been taken in
Devon, one in Oxfordshire, two near Leominster, Hereford-
shire, one in Carmarthenshire, two in Norfolk, and one or two
in Suffolk. In the Northern Midlands it seems to be more
frequent, having been obtained repeatedly in boggy heaths
among alder in North Staffordshire and on the borders of
Derbyshire, and more rarely among the hills of Cannock
Chase, but its principal northern haunt is round Preston,
Lancashire, where the first British specimen was obtained in
the year 1847. It extends to several other localities, mainly
in mosses, in Lancashire, and to York, Scarborough, Ripon,
Guisboro’ and elsewhere in Yorkshire; and two or three
specimens appear to have been obtained in Cumberland. In
all localities in which it has been found the collector appears
to be bitterly tantalised by the easy discovery of empty
cocoons, while full ones seem almost undiscoverable. I know
of no captures of this species in Scotland or Ireland. Abroad,
though not usually in any abundance, it is found in Belgium,
Eastern France, Switzerland, Germany, South Sweden,
Finland, and Central Russia. Also probably in North
America, but bearing the name of borealis, Bdy.

2. C. furcula, Z.—Expanse | to 13 inch. Fore wings
narrow, with rounded apex; pale grey and white, with a
broad purplish-grey central band, edged on both sides with
black ; outer side indented,

OTODONTIDA. 87

Antenne of the male strongly pectinated, the teeth curved
in so that their tips meet ; black, shaft silvery-white. Head
and collar white or greyish-white, the latter densely covered
with long curved-back scales. Thorax broad, black on the
back, but more or less barred with orange, and with whitish
tufts at the sides; abdomen moderately stout, dark grey,
narrowly barred at the edge of each segment with whitish,
and having the apex and sides tufted with white scales. Fore
wings narrow, costa very slightly curved, apex much rounded
but elongated, the curve from it passing regularly down the
hind margin round the anal angle, and becoming very slight
on the dorsal margin; white ; a black dot close to the base is
followed by a transverse row of similar dots, beyond which is
the first line, perpendicular, deep black, edged toward the
base with orange; from this first line the space to the middle
of the wing is occupied by a broad transverse purplish-grey
band, the outer edge of which is bounded, from the costa, by a
deep black line edged with orange, curved inward, and forming
a hollow at the edge of the band, with a deep indentation, but
becoming obliterated half across the wing, below which the
band spreads out more broadly ; just beyond this, in a clear
space, is a long streak at the end of the discal cell, and above
this four black costal spots, from three of which spring
parallel slender blackish transverse lines, all of them forming
similar crescents or scallops in their course to the dorsal
margin near the anal angle; a broad hollow, or crescent,
outside the third, and towards the apex, is occupied by a large
ovate purplish-grey blotch; a broad clear white band, only
divided by faintly brown nervures, lies before the hind margin,
which is very distinctly spotted with black ; cilia white, very
short. Hind wings short and rather narrow ; rounded be-
hind; white, faintly tinged with grey; nervures faintly grey;
central spot narrow, greyish ; sometimes a faintly indicated
greyish cloudy transverse band is visible in the middle ; hind
margin regularly and distinctly spotted with black, the spots
nearest the anal angle aggregated together ; cilia white,

88 LEPIDOPTERA.

Female a little larger; with the antenna more shortly
pectinated, and the body stouter ; otherwise similar, except
that the hind wings are sometimes a little more clouded with
grey.

Underside of the fore wings smoky-grey ; costal margin
white blotched with black; hind margin white, with the
black marginal spots very distinct ; hind wings clear white,
with black marginal dots, and a distinct elongated black
central spot; beyond this is, in some cases, a faint elbowed
transverse grey line. Body beneath rather densely clothed
with downy white scales; legs grey in front, spotted with .
black, heavily tufted with white scales behind.

Variation is mainly toward a greyer tinge of ground colour,
or suffusion over the fore wings of the purplish-grey of the
central band; the black hollowed line, which edges the
central band outwardly, is also subject to much change both
in distinctness and direction, often becoming a faint grey
line, sometimes disappearing except at its origin on the
costal margin. Occasionally, well marked specimens have
a considerable mottling or tinge of orange in the basal area
and the pale portion beyond the dark band, and the orange
edging of the lines increased.

On the wing at the end of May and in June.

Larva smooth; head rounded, retractile ; second segment
squared in front, and projecting laterally ; third segment
peaked; anal prolegs wanting, replaced by two long horny
tails covered with minute black spines. Bright yellowish-
green dotted with yellow; dorsal line yellow to the third
segment, afterwards darker; a broad dull green dorsal blotch,
edged with dark red-brown, from the second segment, forms
a blunt point on the apex of the third, but is continued to
the tail as a large diamond-shaped dorsal marking. This
marking is widest on the eighth segment where it reaches
below the spiracles, narrowest on the eleventh and twelfth,
widening again a little on the latter; the sides, within this

NOTODONTID. 89

blotch, are clouded with dark rust colour and the whole dorsal
blotch is edged with interrupted dark red-brown, and broadly
margined externally with yellow. Spiracles dark reddish,
legs and prolegs tinged with red; under surface with a dark
brown line running from between the last pair of prolegs to
the anus, having on each side a reddish patch edged with
yellow. ‘Tails reddish, darker at the tips, with two yellow
spots. Head dull purple with a yellowish mark outside each
lobe. (C. Fenn.)

End of June to September or even October. On sallow
and willow.

Pura cylindrical, of very even bulk throughout except the
last two abdominal segments which taper a little, both ends
being blunt and rounded. Deep red-brown; dull, except
the tail, which is glossy; wing-cases tinged with green.
(Hellins.) In a hard firm cocoon formed of silk and gnawings
of bark ; in a hollow gnawed out by the larva in the surface
of the bark of a willow or sallow, and finished off so as
accurately to resemble the surrounding bark; or else on any
piece of dead wood within reach. In cocoon through the
winter.

With very rare exceptions single-brooded. A solitary
instance of a second emergence in the year, in this country,
was observed by the Hon. F. Thelluson—‘‘I beat out a larva
from sallow in the last week in June 1893 at Rendlesham,
Suffolk; it was then large, and before the end of July became
a pupa, and to my astonishment the moth emerged on
August 8th.” A similar instance is recorded by Ochsenheimer.
The moth flies at night and may be attracted by a strong
light. In the daytime it sits on the trunk, or more usually on
a branch, of one of its food-trees, its outstretched downy legs
and grey markings giving it a most deceptive likeness to an
entangled downy feather, or even a more close resemblance to
a ripe sallow catkin from which the downy seeds are bursting.
It is not very often taken in the imago state. The larva is

go LEPIDOPTERA.

said to be especially attached to sallow bushes of no great
size on hill sides, on railway embankments, and in the
fens, and is not so frequently found in thickly wooded
districts.

Found throughout the southern counties to Norfolk, Cam-
bridgeshire, Oxfordshire and Herefordshire, though never
very commonly; also, more rarely, in Lincolnshire, Derby-
shire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and even
in Salop, where a single specimen has been obtained by Mr.
Woodforde. Rather more frequent in the mosses and marshy
districts of Cheshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire; and scarce
in Cumberland. In Scotland it is found, rarely, in the Edin-
burgh district, in Roxburghshire, and Clydesdale; more
frequently in Perthshire, and onward through the northern
districts to Moray and West Ross, becoming rather common
in Strathspey. Also widely distributed in Ireland, and
recorded from Westmeath, Cavan, Mayo, Donegal and
Londonderry.

Abroad it is found throughout Northern Europe to Lapland,
Central Europe, and the shores of the Adriatic, also in
Northern Russia.

3. C. bifida, Hiib.—LExpanse 1? inch. Fore wings broader
than in the preceding species ; markings similar, except that
the outer edge of the dark transverse band is regularly
hollowed, not indented.

Antenne of the male rather short, regularly and strongly
pectinated, the rows of teeth curving towards each other till
they meet; black, shaft white. Head strongly tufted with
soft white scales; collar broad, white; behind it a black bar
crosses the broad thorax and is followed by alternate orange
and black bars, the latter most distinct and the third curving
back and embracing two white spots; sides of the thorax also
white; abdomen stout, blackish, thinly covered with fluffy
white scales; anal tuft rather long, flat, and squared, white ;
short tufts of white scales along the sides and base, Fore

NOTODONTID 4, 91

wings long but broader than in the preceding species; costa
very faintly rounded ; apex full, almost angulated; hind
margin curved, rather long and oblique, but very full at the
anal angle; dorsal margin very slightly curved; white ;
markings almost exactly as in the preceding species (C. fur-
cula), except that the transverse purple-grey band is edged
outwardly by a regularly curved line, not indented; the band
is also usually broader on the costal margin and less extended
on the dorsal. The basal dotted line, the first line, the triple
second line and following apical ovate blotch, the stigmatic
streak and the marginal dots are all as in C. fureula, as also
are the hind wings which, however, are a little longer and
have a more distinct central lunule. Female with antenns
more shortly pectinated, and body stouter, sometimes with
@ conspicuous cloudy transverse grey shade on the hind mane
otherwise quite similar.

Underside of the fore wings clouded with pale smoky-gr ey,
with whitish bands; margins white, with blotches and spots
as in C. furcula ; fone black stigma conspicuous; central
area of the wings thickly covered with upstanding whitish
scales ; hind wings white, with a long black central streak and
the usual marginal spots.

Rather variable in depth of grey colour, but not so variable
in the distinctness of the black lines as C. fureula, nor so
much disposed to increased orange shading as that species.
In the late Mr. F. Bond’s collection is a large female speci-
men in which the dark band of the fore wings is extremely
broad and much bent outward toward the anal angle. Mr. F.
Norgate has one in which the black lines are bordered on
both sides with pale orange, and another in which the dark
central band is extremely perpendicular and entirely blackish-
grey, the subapical oval spot being also very black and full.
This is an extremely handsome example.

On the wing at the end of May, and in June.

Larva smooth, head retractile, second segment squared in

92 LEPIDOPTERA.

front and projecting laterally, third segment peaked; anal
prolegs absent, replaced by two long horny tails covered with
minute black spines. ' Head dull purple with a brown mark
on each lobe, outwardly edged with yellowish; body bright
pea-green dotted with red-brown; a triangular purple dorsal
patch on the second and third segments, its base being the
front edge of the second segment. From the fourth segment
to the tail is a broad purple dorsal blotch, attaining its greatest
breadth on the eighth, where it reaches below the spiracles,
and narrowest on the twelfth, widening again on the thir-
teenth. Both these dorsal patches are edged with dark brown
and broadly margined externally with yellow; spiracles
reddish ; legs and prolegs tinged with red ; tail with a dark
brown patch on the under surface. Dorsal line whitish on
the second and third segments, subsequently grey, bisecting
indistinct pale spots on the sixth to the ninth, which are
clouded with ferruginous. (C. Fenn.)

July to September on poplars of all species, including aspen
and Canadian poplar.

Pupa similar to that of C. furcula, but larger. In a hard
cocoon of silk and scraped bark, placed under loose bark, or
in a crevice, or chink, or on the smooth bark of a poplar tree,
even sometimes on an excrescence, but always so con-
structed as precisely to resemble the adjacent surface, and

render it exceedingly difficult of discovery. In pupa through
the winter.

The moth flies at dusk and into the night, and may, now
and then, be captured flying softly about the outer low
branches of a spreading poplar. Later it is readily attracted
by a strong light, and may sometimes be found sitting on a
gas lamp. In the daytime it sits with very outstretched legs
on the trunk or a branch of a poplar, or on neighbouring
palings, and looks exactly like a ripe cottony catkin or an
entangled feather. Rarely found in woods, but much more

NOTODONTIDZ. 93

frequently about poplars growing in gardens and hedgerows,
and even to be found in the suburbs of London.

It is either more common, or more frequently noticed, than
C. furcula, and seems to occur, where poplars are common,
in all parts of the Southern and Eastern Counties of England,
also in the Western to Leicestershire, Worcestershire and
Herefordshire, and in Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire,
Cheshire, and Lancashire. Apparently not noticed in Scot-
land, and in Ireland only in the counties of Sligo and
Londonderry. Abroad it has not the extensive northern
distribution of its ally, but is found in Finland, Sweden,
Livonia, most parts of Central Europe, the South of Spain,
Piedmont, Greece, Dalmatia, and Siberia.

4. C. vinula, Z.—Hxpanse 2} to 3 inches. White with
a grey bar near the base of the fore wings, and beyond it
numerous slender black arrow-head markings.

Antenne: of the male nearly one-half as long as the fore
wings ; densely pectinated with rather long, closely set teeth,
the two rows of which are placed very close together, and in-
cline to each other, the ends crossing so as to look entangled ;
pale brown; shaft white; the tips are also usually curled each
into a twist like a ram’s horn. Head white, strongly tufted
with scales, the longest tufts being at the base of the antennee :
thorax densely covered with long, partially raised, and loose
looking, pure white scales, mixed with pale grey; collar
broadly greyish ; shoulder lappets each with two round black
spots; six similar spots, in pairs, down the middle of the
back; abdomen dark grey and white, in regular alternate
bars ; lateral and anal tufts pure white, very soft and downy,
the latter rather squared.

Fore wings very long, costa nearly straight, very gently
curved toward the apex, which is bluntly angulated; hind
margin regularly curved, oblique, and very long, causing
the anal angle to be hardly indicated; dorsal margin rather
straight; greyish-white, whiter at the base; nervures brownish

94 LEPIDOPTERA,

to the end of the discal cell, thence all black ; there is a black
dot on the base of the median nervure, and beyond it a trans-
verse row of about seven black spots; parallel, and imme-
diately following, is the first line, curved, and rather scalloped,
interrupted at the nervures, black or dark grey; a little
beyond it, and before the middle of the wing, is the second line,
dark grey, double, similarly curved and almost parallel, broadly
interrupted at the nervures; the space between the first and
second line is filled in with smoky-grey, and forms a trans-
verse band, divided by the nervures. Beyond the double
second line, and outside the discal cell, the whole broad space
to the hind margin is occupied by slender, dark grey,
excessively angulated lines, forming arrow-heads between all
the nervures, in series of three to each elongated space or
cell; hind margin with a black spot between each pair of
nervures, from which, usually, a shorter or longer, black line
runs inward toward the inside of the next arrow-head mark,
SO as in Some cases to resemble a complete arrow. At the end
of the discal cell is a long, slender, bent, black lunule, and
on the costa near it several regular blackish blotches; cilia
white, spotted with smoky-black. Hind wings rather small
and short, apex bluntly angulated, hind margin sinuous;
clear white with the nervures brown; a faintly indicated dark
grey central lunule; cilia spotted with grey.

Antenne of the female rather shorter and with shorter
pectinations; abdomen very stout and clumsy; fore wings
considerably broader, with the costal margin decidedly
rounded, colour greyer, markings more distinct; hind wings
pale grey with a central lunule; otherwise as in the male.
The front or costal margin of the hind wings is strongly
fringed with long outstanding white scales, and projects beyond
the costal margin of the fore wings when the insect is at rest.

Underside of the wings of the male clear white, with the
nervures brownish ; a grey cloud exists along the subcostal
region of the fore wings. In the female the underside is
much clouded with grey, the lunule of the hind wings is

NOTODONTIDA. 95

distinct, and the marginal white spots are visible. In both
sexes the body beneath is very downy, white; the legs black,
barred with white, and very strongly tufted with masses of
soft, downy, white scales.

There is constant variation in the positions of the arrow-
head markings between the nervures; in some specimens
these are crowded rather closely together, at a con-
siderable distance from the hind margin, and in these
instances there is a long black line from the marginal dot
running toward them; in other cases the arrow-heads are
widely separated, the last being near to the hind margin, and
in these the black spot has but a short attached streak, or is
entirely without it; every intermediate gradation occurs. In
rare instances the dark band between the first and second
line is intensified. Mr. 8. Stevens has a specimen in which it
is broad and blue-black, all the following markings being
also intensified. One in Mr. S. J. Capper’s collection has it
grey, but very near the base of the wings, and the spaces
before and beyond it pale yellowish; and Mr. J. Harrison
has a female in which the fore and hind wings, thorax
and abdomen, are all clouded with smoky-black.

On the wing in May and June.

Larva stout, smooth, head flattened in front and much
withdrawn into the second segment, which also is flattened in
front and remarkably squared ; fourth segment having a large
upright angular dorsal hump, extremely conspicuous when
the body is not stretched out; body tapering thence to the
anal segment, which has no prolegs, but is provided with two
long rough diverging points directed backward, each contain-
ing a long pink whiplike process or thread which is rapidly
exserted, like along lash, when the creature is irritated. Head
pale brown, edged with black, but with the hind portion
pink; general colour rich green; second segment deeper green
edged with yellow, with a large black spot at each corner ;
from these corners, on each side, commences a white stripe

96 LEPIDOPTERA.

often edged inside by a purple stripe, which proceeds
obliquely to the top of the hump on the fourth segment;
where they diverge again obliquely to the seventh and eighth
segments, upon which, in some specimens, they descend to
near the spiracles, but in others, quite down to the prolegs;
thence rapidly returning toward the dorsal region, and
proceeding quite to the anal fork. The whole surface of the
back above these two white stripes is purple, or brown dusted
with purple, or with lilac, or even white; it forms a most
striking dorsal blotch, and has been compared to a saddle,
having a most conspicuous crupper. The apex of the hump
of the fourth segment is dull crimson ; the spiracles white
edged with black ; the legs brown ringed with yellow; anal
tails whitish, greenish, or purplish, with brownish-black
rough tips and roughnesses or incrustations ; between them
are two black points.

A formidable and alarming looking creature, as it sits with
head drawn back, the black spots like two great eyes, the
conspicuous hump, the contrasting purple, white, and green
colour, and the two divergent tails, upraised and threatening.
When young the angles of the second segment are sharper,
almost like horns, the hump on the fourth segment even
more conspicuous, the anal tails longer, and their contained
whips long and much more easily excited to protrusion.

July, August, and sometimes September, more especially
upon poplar, but also upon aspen, willow, and sallow ; always
sitting on the upper side of a leaf, most conspicuously, and
feeding vigorously in the sunshine; also feeding much at
night. The large leaves of the Canadian poplar (Populus
balsamifera) in gardens in the outskirts of towns seem to be
much favoured.

Pura rather soft, stout, blunt, with prominent eyes and
well-defined antenna-cases; incisions deeply cleft; anal
extremity with numerous small warts; purplish-brown with
darker wing-cases. Enclosed in a hard shell-like cocoon,

NOTODONTIDE. 97

rough externally but highly polished inside, composed of a
kind of gum secreted by the larva mixed with small frag-
ments bitten from the surface where it is placed; on the
trunk of a tree, usually rather near the ground in an angle
of the bark, which it closely resembles. (C. Fenn.) The
resemblance of the cocoon to the bark is so close that itis
almost impossible to discover it with the eye. Not always
placed upon the tree on which the larva has fed, but the
cocoon (which is easily found when vacated by the moth) has
been known to be placed on trunks of oak, birch, horse-
chestnut and other trees, and even on the mortar of a wall,
or on a@ potato tuber, Colonel Partridge found a number of
cocoons, one of which contained a living pupa, on stems of
Tamarisk (Tamarix gallica) at the Isle of Portland, but
as neither poplar, sallow, nor any known food plant of the
Species grew near by, the inference appeared probable that
the larvee had fed on that unusual plant. Dr, T, A. Chapman
has shown that the portion of the cocoon through which the
moth has to break is thinner, more transparent and less
strengthened with bits of bark than the remainder of the
cocoon, that the pupa has a sort of edge, or keel, in front,
for cutting its way, and that the moth, as it breaks the pupa
skin, emits a fluid from an orifice close to the small filaments
of the tongue, which fluid has the power of softening the
cocoon, and is rubbed round inside by the moth before forcing
its way out. This is of great interest, since the cocoon is of
extraordinary hardness, and utterly impervious to so soft an
insect without such aid. Professor Poulton states that the
fluid in question is powerfully acid, affecting litmus paper in
a most marked degree, and causing violent effervescence
when allowed to fall upon sodium bicarbonate. He also
states that it is formic acid, and that the freshly opened
and moist cocoon is also acid to test paper. For his
observations on eversible glands in this and other species,
and the use of them for defence, for which I am unable
to find room here, the student is referred to the Transac-
VOL. III. G

98 LEPIDOPTERA.

tions of the Entomological Society of London, 1886 and
1887.

The moth flies only at night and is readily attracted by a
strong light. In the daytime it is most sluggish, sitting on a
paling, or the trunk, or branch, of a tree, or on the low-
growing dwarf sallows of a sandhill or fen. In such a
situation a specimen, or more conspicuously a pair, of the
moths, bears the most extraordinary resemblance to a bunch
of bursting, cottony catkins of the sallow. No one would
imagine the accuracy of this mimicry without actually seeing
it. The fluffy legs, the downy margin of the hind wings
projecting outside the fore wings, the grey markings on the
latter, and the spots on the thorax produce a most remarkable
and unexpected harmony of appearance with the bunches of
catkins all around.

Apparently to be found throughout the United Kingdom,
except the Orkney and Shetland Isles ; and in most districts
moderately common, though hardly ever abundant; rare in
the Hebrides, and some other parts of Scotland, but in Ire-
land extending to Malin Head, Donegal. Abroad it is found
nearly all over the Continent of Hurope, Westera Asia,
Siberia, and in some parts of Northern Africa. Specimens
agreeing most accurately with our own, but named /elina
(a most felicitous synonym for our “ Puss Moth”), are found
in Japan, and a slightly more dusky variety from the North-
West Himalayas, China, and Japan, has received the name

of Himalayana.
Genus 2. STAUROPUS.

Antenne one-third the length of the fore wings; in the
male pectinated to three-fourths of their length, thence
simple; in the female simple ; abdomen crested with upright
tufts of scales; dorsal margins of both fore and hind wings
edged with long scales which are raised into a rather
prominent tuft when the wings are closed.

NOTODONTIDE. 99

Larvee lobster-shaped, with very long anterior legs, no anal
prolegs, anal segment with a pair of erect filaments.

Pur of quite ordinary shape, in a silken cocoon.

1. S. fagi, Z.—Expanse 2 to 23 inches. | Fore wings long,
grey-brown, with indented, whitish, cross lines; and blackish
spots near the hind margin; hind wings short, grey-brown.

Antennze of the male very short, strongly pectinated, and
the teeth set well apart for three-fourths of their length,
when they suddenly terminate, the shaft curved forward,
and then straightened, with an angle, into a stiff simple spike:
chestnut-brown. Head strongly tufted, yellowish-grey, with
large whiter tufts at the bases of the antenne. Thorax
broad, densely covered with long fluffy scales, mixed, brownish-
grey and whitish; abdomen stout, greyish-brown, often
whitish-brown, with a dorsal row of upright tufts of black
scales from the base to the middle, and a large flattened
anal tuft of long whitish scales. Fore wings long, rather
ovate: costal margin straight to the middle, then gently
rounded; apex rather angulated; hind margin below it
gently rounded, then bending suddenly, much more obliquely,
and sweeping off to the dorsal margin, with little indica-
tion of an anal angle, continuing its curve along the dorsal
margin, where is an edging of long grey scales. Colour
brownish-grey mixed with ashy-grey; nervures faintly
tinged with yellowish; base ashy-grey or whitish-grey ; first
line undulating and much indented, smoky-black, edged on
its basal side with yellowish or whitish ; second line placed
just beyond the middle of the wing, also much undulated
and indented, consisting indeed of crescents placed between
nervures, yellowish-white, partially edged inside with black ;
the broad band between these two transverse lines much
clouded with dark grey or blackish, darkest toward the costa,
but tinged with dull purplish-red toward the dorsal margin.
At the end of the discal cell is a perpendicular black streak

100 LEPIDOPTERA,

much obscured by dark scales. Beyond the second line is a
row of ill-defined round black spots edged inside with whitish,
lying parallel with the hind margin, except that the one nearest
the apex is placed further back. Along the hind margin isa
row of blackish dashes, the lower of them curiously bent and
angulated ; cilia rather long, dark grey dashed with whitish,
Hind wings short, rounded, the costal margin clothed with long
loosely projecting scales, and the dorsal half covered from the
base with long fluffy scales; grey-brown, paler at the base,
tinged with reddish towards the dorsal margin; the costal
area darker brown, with large ashy-white marginal blotches ;
cilia white with dark grey dashes. Female larger, with very
short, simple antennze, hind wings darker, otherwise similar,
When at rest the fore wings are folded closely together,
so that the scales of the dorsal margin stand up in a ridge
over the back ; but the hind wings are laid flatly down, and
extend outside the costal margin of the fore wings, so that
there is a broad flap of hind wing, barred with white, visible
on each side.

Underside of fore wings greyish-white with long grey
shades between the nervures: that portion lying under the
discal cell densely covered with long raised scales: hind
wings and body greyish-white; legs grey above, whitish
beneath, with large dense downy white tufts; anal tuft
shining white. In the female the fore wings beneath are
nearly unicolorous grey.

Variation is mainly in the depth of the grey-brown colour-
ing and in the reddish tinge of the dorsal region. In some
cases the latter is absent, in others it is extended halfway
across the wings; usually it is strongest in the male. A
large female taken near Reading by Mr. W. Holland is
mainly of a very pale ashy-grey, with the costal half of the
dark band also pale, but the submarginal row of spots very
dark and conspicuous; others are smoky black, some quite
smooth and shining, the usual lines and one or two spots
whitish, and the cilia strongly dashed with white. ‘This last

NOTODONTIDA. Iol

black form is a recurrent variety, and is met with in both sexes 5
intermediate smoky-grey examples also occur. Wyre Forest
specimens in the cabinet of Mr. and Mrs. Abbott have the
thorax and base of the fore wings unusually hoary in colour.

On the wing in May, June, and the beginning of July, and
in very exceptional seasons, as a partial second generation, in
October and November, but the occurrence of this second
emergence does not seem to have been recorded abroad, nor
to have been noticed here until quite recently.

Larva nearly three inches in length, shaped something
like a lobster. Head large, narrow above and slightly cleft,
broad below, flattened, outer edge ridged, and the lobes
prominent; second and third segments smaller, fifth to the
tenth much larger, deeply divided and produced into double
perpendicular tubercles on the back; eleventh segment
flattened a little at the sides, but less prominent above, twelfth
and thirteenth also flattened at the sides, but swollen into a
great ovate lobe, raised above the back and embellished with
two curved-down tails or tentacles ; no anal prolegs. The true
legs are very long, longer than those of the moth, sprawling,
having regular tibie, tarsi, and outward bending knees,
as conspicuous as those of a spider, but totally unlike those
of other larvee; ventral prolegs very large and prominent.
Head reddish-brown, streaked in front with light brown, or
with purplish-crimson ; body and legs light brown or darker
brown, with a faintly purplish tinge, always shaded on the
segments with deeper brown; dorsal line faintly yellowish,
bordered with blackish ; dorsal humps edged on each side
with blackish lines apparently representing subdorsal lines ;
spiracles white, ringed with blackish-brown, surrounded with
paler, and edged above by a deep brown spiracular line ;
hinder segments rather darker and more crimson-brown,
showing but little trace of the longitudinal lines. The very
young larva looks almost like a long-legged ant and is dark
brown, there being little alteration in appearance other than

102 LEPIDOPTERA.

in size throughout the larval existence. It eats nothing
apparently, except its egg-shell, until after the first change
of skin, when the cast skin is devoured. After this it feeds
steadily on the leaves and is said to eat every morsel, even to
the leaf-stalk, before going to another leaf. It has also been
seen to drink drops of water sprinkled on its food.

July to September on beech, or more rarely on birch, oak,
hazle, hawthorn, apple, and wild rose; abroad also on alder,
lime, and fruit trees generally. So far as I am aware no
second generation of the larva has been observed to feed up
in this country, and there is reason to believe that the off-
spring of the second emergence of moths, if any, perish
miserably from cold, or hunger, or both. This doubtless has
helped to restrict the numbers of this species, which does not
appear to be very subject to the attacks of Ichneumon
parasites.

Pura of ordinary shape, rounded, rather broad, abdominal
segments almost as stout as the thorax, anal extremity very
blunt ; brown-black with a purplish bloom. In a thin but
very tough cocoon of brown silk between two dead leaves
upon the ground, Apparently never upon the tree. In this
condition through the winter, during which season the pupze
must.be greatly reduced in number by mice and other foes.

The moth flies only at night, usually from about 11 P.M.,
and after that hour the males may readily be assembled, in
its restricted haunts, by means of a freshly reared female. It
will also come to a strong light. In the daytime it sits on
the trunks of trees, more especially small ones. Mr. W.
Holland says in the JLntomologist’s Monthly Magazine,
“They decidedly make a selection of the smaller trees and
saplings to sit upon. It is unusual to find them—the males
in particular—on anything larger than a small scaffold-pole,
and the more favourite tree is from the size of a hop-pole to
that of a walking-stick. The small tree need not be a beech,
a young ash, thorn, nut-bush, dead stick, in fact anything

NOTODONTID. 103

which stands upright in the beech wood will do, so that it is
not too large. The females are not found quite so constantly
on young trees, perhaps because they are less active than the
males, but when once they have flown these also seem to
prefer the smaller trees. This selection of trees may be a
protection to the moth. The trunks of the large beech trees
are very smooth and clean, and a large moth like this is
conspicuous on them, but the little trees are rugged and
covered with knobs, large in proportion to the size of the
tree, where branches have been taken off to make it grow
shapely ; and the moth as it sits closely pressed to the tree,
carefully balanced to the perpendicular, with its wings folded
to a triangular shape, the hind wings projecting beyond the .
fore wings, after the fashion of Gustropacha quercifolia, looks
wonderfully like one of these knobs. The blackish variety in
particular is so like a knob on the tree that a close examina-
tion is needed to detect it.” I feel particular pleasure in
quoting Mr. Holland’s remarks since his opportunities of
observing the insect in the Reading district have been
unequalled, and it is to his unbounded liberality that I am
indebted for the magnificent series, including varieties and
specimens set so as to show the position in repose, from which
the above descriptions have been made. ‘The manner in
which the projecting portions of the hind wings, with their
grey-brown and white shades, finish off the resemblance of
the moth to a knot, is wonderful to see. The larva, too, has
its curiosities of mimicry. When extremely young and at
rest it looks exactly like one of the brown scales of the beech
twig; when moving it resembles a large red ant; when
larger it agrees most accurately in colour and outline with
a twig of beech having unopened buds, such as it loves to sit
upon; or is hardly to be distinguished from a dry brown
curled leaf. When disturbed it takes a quivering trembling
attitude, and if knocked off the spray ‘looks as though about
to expire in a fit of palsy.” When feeding it has a singular
likeness to a great earwig or brown rove-beetle, and this last

104 LEPIDOPTERA,

similitude was so early noticed that Mouffet wrote more than
two centuries and a half ago that the “Staphylinus caterpillar ”
was common in Norfolk. When irritated it has the power of
ejecting an acid secretion from the gland under its head,
causing much inconvenience to the eye of the too-close
observer.

Most frequent in beech woods in chalk districts, more
rarely found in open mixed woods, but almost confined to
chalky or sandy localities. Certainly not now common in
Norfolk, though early in the present century Curtis used to
take it in the Cathedral Close at Norwich. Still found
occasionally in the county and in Suffolk, and much more
frequently in Essex, especially the Epping Forest district.
In various localities in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Wilts, Dorset,
and even Devon and Cornwall. Not very scarce in the New
Forest, Hants, and in some years comparatively common in
the chalk districts of Berks, Bucks and Oxfordshire. Rare
in Cambridgeshire, the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire,
Somerset, Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Herefordshire,
Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, in Wyre Forest on the
borders of Worcestershire and Salop, and in Wales in the
Swansea district. I have no record from further north in
these islands, except that of a single specimen at Selby,
Yorkshire, in 1864. Mr. Kane showed me a very pale
specimen which I understood that he had taken in Ireland
in 1892 ; it is since stated by him that it was captured near
Kenmare by Miss Vernon, and that one or two more speci-
mens have been found in Ireland.

Abroad it is widely distributed through Central Europe, and
in Spain, Piedmont, Corsica, Livonia, Southern Sweden, and
over extensive regions of Western and Southern Asia.
Specimens from Japan have received the name of persimilis ;
and those from Ceylon, India, and Burmah, that of
alternans.

NOTODONTIDZ. 105

Genus 3. NOTODONTA,

Antenne in the male pectinated to near the apex, but in
the upper portion the teeth diminish regularly in length,
and in most species become much broader ; all ciliated ; fore
wings of a long-ovate shape, rounded at the tip, and having
on the dorsal margin a “prominent” or projecting tuft
of scales which in repose forms a dorsal hump.

LARVZ in some cases cylindrical, in others of most
grotesque forms, always with sixteen legs, but usually
carrying the anal pair elevated.

Pup of normal form, in a thin silken cocoon, usually
subterranean, occasionally between leaves.

l. N. dicteea, Z., tremula, Stawd, Cat—Expanse 13 to
21 inches. Fore wings long, narrow, rounded at the tip,
whitish, with longitudinal black stripes and white nervures ;
dorsal margin with a small prominent tuft; hind wings
white, with a dark spot at the anal angle.

Antennee of the male strongly pectinated, the teeth stout,
regular, rather spreading, closely fringed; light brown.
Head small, purple-brown, tufts at the base of the antennz
darker; collar broad, brown or blackish-brown; thorax
broad, loosely covered with downy dark brown scales mixed
with silvery white; black lines at the back of the rather
raised shoulder-lappets, and of the thorax ; abdomen long,
stout, cylindrical, yellowish brown, slightly tufted down the
sides, and with a short, broad, golden-brown anal tuft. Fore
wings long-ovate, costa straight to beyond the middle, then
gently rounded, the curve passing smoothly round the apex
and oblique hind margin to the anal angle; dorsal margin
rather short, bending out from the base and slightly angu-
lated in the middle, where is a protruding, angulated tuft
of scales, forming a dorsal prominent, or hump, when the
wings are closed; colour whitish; a broad, deep black,

106 LEPIDOPTERA:

longitudinal stripe, arising at the base of the costa, passes
down the wing to near the anal angle, being sharply defined —
toward the dorsal area, but shaded off with light brown
toward the middle of the wing, and divided by white lines
which run up the nervures from the hind margin, that
nearest the anal angle being slenderly and indistinctly wedge-
shaped. A bright white line commences with a sharp angle
above the dorsal prominent tuft and thence proceeds toward
the anal angle. The space along the dorsal margin, cut off
by the black stripe, is otherwise pale ochreous shading to
grey. Great part of the costal region is occupied by a large
grey shade which spreads, in longitudinal clouds, into the
middle of the wing, and more darkly towards the apex, before
which it narrows off to a point; in this darker portion are
contained two or three black streaks lying between nervures.
The nervures are clouded with brownish until past the
middle, where they become white ; and a white spot is formed
by a cloudy ring at the end of the discal cell. Hind
marginal space faintly clouded with grey and brownish from
the black stripe ; the margin edged with a white and a black
line ; cilia greyish, paler at the base. Hind wings elongated,
rounded at the apex; nervures brownish; dorsal region
clothed with very long brownish scales; at the anal angle is
a purplish-black blotch divided by two brownish nervures
and a submarginal white line; remainder of hind margin
edged with a faintly brownish line; cilia white. Female a
little larger and stouter, with antennee very shortly pectinated,
otherwise similar. Underside of the fore wings white in the
middle, clouded toward all the margins with brownish grey,
darkest toward the costa. Hind wings white, faintly edged
at the anal angle with brown; body and legs glossy golden
brown.

Variation appears to be mainly climatal, the brown shading
gradually disappearing in the northern districts, so that
specimens sent from Fifeshire by Mr. J. Ross have hardly
a trace of brown colouring, the white ground colour forming

NOTODONTIDZ. 107

a broad stripe down the middle of the fore wings; while
a long series in Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher’s collection, obtained
from Forres, are shaded with a very cold grey. Yet a male
taken near Rugeley, Staffordshire, by Dr. R. Freer, has the
ground colour dull pale brown with little trace of white.

On the wing at the end of May and in June, and as a
complete or partial second generation at the end of July and
in August. As a rule double-brooded in the South of
England, single in the North and in Scotland, but this rule
appears to admit of a somewhat wide range of exceptions,
and there is a record of the rearing of a partial third genera-
tion in one season. In Nottinghamshire it has been shown
to be fully double-brooded, while in the adjoining and more
hilly county of Derby it is but very partially so.

Larva elongated, with the skin highly polished and much
wrinkled, especially at the sides; third segment swollen
laterally ; fifth to the tenth slightly so on the back; twelfth
enlarged into a pointed dorsal hump. Head rounded,
shining, whitish or greenish or pale brown, in the former
cases the body is pale or deep green with faint darker green
subdorsal lines, rather narrow and often indistinct; yellow
spiracular lines, and the surface below them, with the
legs and prolegs, either green or purplish-red ; while in the
other case the pale brown head is accompanied by a general
pale brown or drab colour transversely banded with pale
yellowish which encloses brown spots, and having on the
second, third, fifth to eighth, and twelfth segments side
blotches of rich dark brown; or sometimes clouded with pale
lilac but having no distinct spiracular line. Spiracles black,
in white rings; hump on the twelfth segment edged in
front with whitish, behind with purplish; anal segment
tinged with red. Under surface green, or rosy red, or lilac,
These varieties are so different in appearance as commonly
to be mistaken for distinct species.

At the end of June and beginning of July, and in a second

108 LEPIDOPTERA.

generation from the end of August to October or even
November; on poplar, aspen, and sometimes on any species
of sallow. Clinging so tightly to the leaves as to be very
difficult to beat off, and liable to be injured in the operation.
Not easy to rear in confinement, but fond of drinking drops
. of water. The brown variety of this larva is frequent in this

country, but appears to have been unknown to Professor
Zeller, in Germany.

Pura cylindrical, blunt, rounded at both ends and tapering
but little toward the tail; glossy, with roughened wing-
cases ; colour deep mahogany-brown with darker thorax and
wing-cases. In a coarse ovate cocoon of grey silk and earth,
buried often at the foot of a tree, sometimes at some depth
below the surface of the ground. In this condition through
the winter. Duponchel says that the larve of the summer

brood spin up between leaves, the autumn brood in the
earth,

The moth flies only at night, and is readily attracted by a
strong light. I have often found the male settled quietly
down on a gas-lamp in the environs of London. In the day-
time it is perfectly quiescent, sitting occasionally on the
trunk of a tree or a fence, but probably more generally on a
branch ; and, with extended legs, resembling an entangled
and rain-washed feather, or a lump of bird’s excrement. Ap-
parently found throughout England, common in the Southern
and Kastern Counties, except the Fens where it is scarce ;
not common in the extreme west of England or in Wales.
Frequent in some parts of Scotland and found so far north as
the district of Moray. Also widely distributed in Ireland,
occurring even in Donegal, and commonly on the coast near
Londonderry, but apparently much scarcer in the Southern
districts. Abroad it is found throughout Central Europe, and
in Northern Spain, Piedmont, Sweden, and Finland.

2. N. dictzeoides, Hsp.—Expanse 12 to 2 inches, Like

NOTODONTIDA., 109

NV. dicteea but with a long, distinct, wedge-shaped, pure white
streak near the anal angle and continued to the cilia,

Resembling NV. dictwa in structure, colour, and markings
so closely that the description already furnished of that
species applies to this, with the following exceptions :—the
colour of the fore wings in the present species is usually of a
clearer white with less brown or grey clouding ; the nervures
are not white except at their extreme tips; the ringed white
discal spot is absent but replaced by one or two faint
brownish flecks; and the long white streak which runs
to the hind margin, above the anal angle, is of a clearer white,
broader, much more distinctly wedge-shaped, and runs
through to the cilia, obliterating the black marginal line, In
the hind wings the colour is not so clearly white but tinged
with grey, and the blotch at the anal angle is not divided by
nervures nor by a white line but shades off in a dusky
clouding above; cilia dappled with brownish. Underside.
darker than in NV. dictwa, the fore wings almost wholly grey-
brown, except a sharply defined clear-white blotch just
below the apex, and sometimes a white streak on the very
dark costa ; otherwise similar.

Variation very slight, but Scottish specimens are whiter
than those from the South, and reared specimens are often
paler than those captured at large. Dr. R. Freer has
specimens, taken on Cannock Chase, in which the longitudinal
black stripe is unusually broad, and its edging of brown
shading also rather extended.

On the wing in April, May, and June, and as a partial
second generation in July and August. Apparently single-
brooded in the northern portion of its range, but irregular
and uncertain, individuals fed up at the same time emerging
at very different periods, from May to September.

Larva elongated, skin highly polished, twelfth segment
raised into a peaked hump which when young is very
prominent; third segment swollen laterally; head rounded

110 LEPIDOPTERA

and shining; a rough horny plate on the anal flap. Head
lilac, delicately reticulated with black; back olive or
purplish-brown shading into lilac on the sides; a broad and
very conspicuous yellow spiracular stripe ; spiracles prominent,
black, edged with white ; second and third segments trans-
versely and indistinctly shaded with grey, twelfth segment
transversely shaded with dark grey, the hump blackish;
anal plate purplish-brown ; legs reddish-brown ; prolegs ex-
ternally reddish-brown or purplish-brown, inside greenish.
When young the spiracular stripe is often white, and the
hump large, conical and prominent. (C. Fenn.)

In June and July, and, in a partial second generation, in
September and October. On birch, feeding upon the leaves,
but when not feeding fond of resting upon the underside of
a leaf stalk; somewhat addicted, in captivity, to devouring
its kindred, probably from want of water. Rather difficult
to obtain by beating the trees, from the tenacity with which
it clings to its resting-place.

Pupa elongate, rounded ; anal extremity round, with two
very minute and widely separated bristles; dark purple or
blackish. Underground in a compact tough cocoon of silk
and sand. (C. Fenn.)

The moth flies only at night, and is readily attracted by a
strong light, though otherwise scarcely ever taken on the
wing. In the daytime it sits upon a birch trunk or branch,
or on one of the side twigs, or even on a spreading root, with
its long tufted anterior legs stretched forward, and in the
latter situation the resemblance of the moth, or more still of a
pair of moths to the smooth dropping of a large bird is most
startling and unexpected, far closer even than that to a
swollen knot of birch bark. Dr. R. Freer of Rugeley points
out another curious mimetic resemblance in this species. He
says, “In the moth state it affects the edges of palings, and
after pairing the female usually rests head downwards, and
the male the other way up, the two heads being approxi-

NOTODONTIDA. III

mated. Their peculiar coloration then forms a very efficient
protective resemblance to a brown and white fungus which
grows in whorls up the sides of the palings and in similar
situations, and the result is extremely bizarre, especially as
I saw once, when six males and one female—evidently a case
of assembling—were sitting close together on the edge
of one paling; the resemblance to the fungus in question
being then extraordinary.”

Very widely distributed, apparently occurring, though far
from commonly, in all the counties of the southern half of
England ; still more rarely throughout the fen districts and
most of the midland and western counties ; becoming more
frequent in Staffordshire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire, and in
the mosses of Cheshire and Lancashire; and not rare in
Herefordshire, Glamorganshire, Merionethshire and Cumber-
land. Far more common in Scotland, occurring throughout
that country except the Isles, and especially attached to the
hillsides and the valleys which run deeply into the hills,
in which the birch is usually the most abundant tree. In
Treland it has been found near Dublin and in Wicklow,
Mayo, Westmeath, Galway, Roscommon, Cavan, Tyrone, and
Donegal, but apparently never commonly. Abroad its range
extends throughout Central Hurope, the temperate portions
of Northern Europe, Piedmont, France and Lapland.

8. N. ziezac, L.—Expanse 13 to 2 inches. Fore wings
pale brown, white toward the costa, with a very large oval
purple-brown and grey blotch beyond the middle.

Antenne of the male pectinated with rather strong teeth
to near the apex, where they become broader, but so short as
to be obscure; light brown. Head rough, purplish-brown ;
thorax broad, covered with dense, rather raised, long purple-
brown scales; collar darker; shoulder lappets raised and
edged with black ; back of thorax almost crested with raised
black and dark purple-brown scales ; abdomen stout, greyish-
brown, rather downy, with a very short, thick, anal tuft.

112 LEPIDOPTERA:

Fore wings somewhat ovate, with the costal margin straight
to near the apex, where it curves, and takes a bold sweep
round the tip, the hind margin, and the anal angle; dorsal
margin also rather rounded, and furnished in the middle
with a large projecting tooth of purple-black scales. General
colour light fawn; middle portion of the costa to the median
nervure white or hoary; at the base of the wing is a
yellowish spot faintly bounded by a reddish line; first line
perpendicular, purple-brown, but only visible from the costa
to the median nervure; at the end of the discal cell isa long
thick black streak or lunule, the apex of which unites with a
cloudy deep black edging which runs along the costa to the
apex, and also with several black lines along nervures.
From this discal streak or lunule the whole outer portion of
the wing is clouded with purple-grey interrupted with
ripples or clouds of the ground colour, forming a large oval
blotch like a pebble, in which the nervures are black and the
portion in the hollow of the discal streak is dark grey, while
a delicate line of pale crescents seems to indicate the normal
second line; near the hind margin is a similarly formed
pale line passing through reddish clouds; a thick black line
from the costa passes round the apex and hind margin to
the dorsal margin, along which, with interruptions, and
a change to red-brown, it reaches the base of the wing ; out-
side this the cilia, pale brown dashed with dark brown, are
continued round the apex on to the costal margin; on the hind
margin they are slightly scalloped and tipped with white.
Hind wings white tinged with pale greyish-brown, paler at
the base; nervures rather browner, as is a large cloudy
central lunule; hind margin edged with black-brown, from
which, at the anal angle, extends a light purple-brown cloud ;
often a whitish cloud les across the middle of the wing ; cilia
pale brown dusted with darker and becoming very dark
at the anal angle.

Female with the antennz only dentate; slightly larger
and rather stouter, hind wings browner; otherwise similar.

NOTODONTIDZE. 113

Underside of the fore wings smoky blackish with whitish
margins, and the nervures and dorsal streak blackish; hind
wings white with a large blackish lunule, brown nervures,
and grey clouding, which, however, leaves a white transverse
band in the middle; a dark brown line runs round the
margins of all the wings, outside which the cilia are whitish
dashed with grey; body grey-brown; legs reddish-brown.
Female browner.

The ground colour varies from pale fawn colour to purplish-
brown, and the large oval blotch is sometimes tinged in the
clouded portion with red, while in other cases the clouding
is almost obliterated. In some specimens the marginal black
line is much thickened and intensified, forming quite a frame
to the fore wings, and in such individuals the inner parallel
ripples of colour are very strong. Mr. S. Stevens has a
specimen in which the middle of the fore wings is dark brown,
and is crossed by a longitudinal biack bar which meets the
discal lunule.

On the wing in May and June and in a complete or partial
second generation in August. Mr. W. H. Tugwell reports
having reared a third generation of moths in September. In
the south of England, and so far northward as Nottingham-
shire, a second generation is found to be constant and
tolerably complete; but in the adjacent hilly districts, as
Derbyshire, the second emergence is partial only, and this
condition is observable in more northern English districts,
while in Scotland but one brood is usually obtained. In this
respect, however, the insect seems everywhere to be influenced
by the seasons and by local conditions.

Larva. Head broader than the following segments and
slightly cleft at the top, four following seements moderately
slender, sixth and seventh each with a large and conspicuous,
broadly conical dorsal hump ; another, more flattened, on the
twelfth; ventral prolegs large and strong; anal prolegs
small and but little used ; anal segment tapering to a point

VOL. UI. Wd

114 LEPIDOPTERA.

and usually elevated. Head greenish-grey or yellowish-grey ;
body whitish-grey, more or less tinged with pink or brown or
yellowish ; the two hinder segments more yellow-brown or
pinkish; dorsal line broadly orange, edged with brown
on some of the segments, but on others almost obliterated,
well marked on the front of the dorsal humps; subdorsal
line a mere darker shade of the ground colour; spiracular
line similar but more distinct, broader, and edged below with
yellow or white; spiracles ringed with black ; undersurface
and legs darker grey. Sometimes the raised hinder segments
are richly clouded with orange, and have white lines on the
upper portion of the hump.

June and July, and usually, in the southern districts, a
second generation in August and September. On sallow
and willow; more rarely on poplar and aspen ; feeding on the
leaves, clinging much to the twigs or leaf-stalks, holding on
with considerable force, and from its singular form, which,
with head and tail raised, and conspicuous humps, is quite a
zigzag (hence its name), may easily be passed over as a dead
and twisted leaf or catkin. When feeding on poplar it is
sometimes of a bright pea-green. It is hardy and easily reared.

Pura round, cylindrical, rather stumpy ; red-brown ; glossy
on the abdomen and tail, dull on the wing-cases. Subter-
ranean, in a cocoon of silk and earth, sometimes at the root
of a tree, doubtless more frequently under a bush. In this
condition through the winter.

The moth flies only at night, and comes readily to a light
placed in its haunts, though not often to gas-lamps in the
suburbs of towns. In fens and marshy places it is taken
freely by this method. Otherwise it is rarely taken upon the
wing, or indeed in any manner in the moth state, nearly all
the specimens in collections being reared. Probably it sits in
the daytime upon branches of trees rather than their trunks,
and in the thick parts of bushes, where it is not easily seen.

Apparently found throughout the United Kingdom, wher-

NOTODONTIDZ. 115

ever sallow or poplar is plentiful, except in the Scottish Isles,
from which I have no record of its appearance; yet never very
common, and principally confined to fens, marshes, and damp
woods. The records extend from Kent and South Devon to
Moray and West Ross, and in Ireland from Wicklow to London-
derry and Donegal. Abroad it is found throughout central and
northern Europe, Southern France, Spain, Italy, and Corsica.

4. N. tritophus, /ab.—Expanse 2 inches. Fore wings
rusty-brown, with the base, and a very large ovate apical
blotch, blackish ; hind wings white.

Antennz of the male rather shortly pectinated, light
brown ; head covered with raised grey-brown scales; thorax
broad, not crested, dark brown, faintly dusted with ashy-grey,
and in the middle tinged with reddish, shoulder lappets a
little raised, blacker brown; abdomen rather long and stout,
yellowish brown with a small blackish raised dorsal tuft of scales
on the basal seoment. Fore wings very ovate, costa slightly
curved, more so toward the apex, which is very bluntly angu-
lated; hind margin oblique, very slightly rounded except
towards the anal angle; dorsal margin also rounded and
slightly angulated in the middle, where is situated a triangular
prominent tuft of blackish scales; general colour rusty-brown
or reddish-brown; close to the base is a much angulated,
thick, black line, followed by a broad, blackish transverse
band nearly fillmg the space to the normal first transverse
line, which is perpendicular, rippled and indented, blackish ;
beyond this, at the costal edge of the discal cell, is a triangular
brown or blackish spot edged with whitish; beyond this the
usual discal streak or lunule, long, reddish, edged with white,
and clouded outside with smoky-black, this last being the
commencement of a very large ovate smoky-black blotch
which occupies most part of the apical space from the costa
to below the middle of the wing, but is bounded toward the
hind margin by a broad stripe of the ground colour. From
the dorsal margin near the anal angle commences the second

116 LEPIDOPTERA:

line, indented, blackish, which on reaching the large blackish
blotch sometimes continues across it as a white indented line,
but in other cases becomes perceptible only by dots on the
nervures ; central portion of the costal margin tinged with
whitish, sometimes broadly so; hind margin narrowly blackish-
brown, edged with a black line; cilia dark grey dashed with
black, and continued round the apex on to the costa. Hind
wines short and rather small, rounded, white; the nervures
faintly brownish ; at the anal angle is a small triangular smoky-
black patch, containing whitish and black dots; cilia white
with grey dashes. Female with antennz slightly dentated ;
hind wings faintly tinged with grey; otherwise similar.

Underside of the fore wings dark grey with the discal
lunule reddish, and some whitish dusting near the margins;
hind wings white, clouded with grey; body and legs grey,
the latter dark-brown in front.

Said to be upon the wing at the end of April and in May,
and in a second generation in July and August.

Larva. Head rather large, following three segments more
slender, the sixth seventh and eighth each with a large
dorsal, curved-back, conical hump, and one on the twelfth of
a pyramidal shape, hinder segments usually raised, with
very small anal prolegs; the ventral prolegs being large and
robust. The whole shape when at rest is most singular, the
middle and hinder portions so elevated that the large humps
point toward each other, and nearly meet. Head pale grey ;
body, with the humps, pale grey or brownish-grey, with
numerous transverse wrinkles and darker shades; dorsal line
rather narrow, darker grey or reddish-brown, and passing
over the dorsal humps ; sub-dorsal line slender, double, faintly
grey or brown; spiracular line darker and broader, shading
down to the feet, which are barred or ringed with whitish ;
raised hinder segments more distinctly lined and clouded than
the rest; spiracles black. Before spinning up it changes to
blackish-brown or purplish-brown.

NOTODONTIDE. 117

June, July, August, September, on aspen. Abroad reported
to feed also on poplar, willow, and birch.

Pupa shining dark-brown; in a silken cocoon, in the
earth or between leaves. Passing the winter in this
condition.

This is one of our rarest insects. The first recorded
capture, of which I am aware, was in 1842 by Mr. J. W.
Douglas. He says: “During the Essex excursion I took
from an aspen a larva of a greenish-grey colour having three
prominences on the back, and which, I thought, was J. ziczae,
though differing somewhat from the usual appearance of that
larva. It formed a slight covering between two leaves in the
collecting-box, and appeared in its perfect state on the 10th of
August. It has not, I believe, been taken in Britain before.”
This specimen, a very fine male, is now in the collection of
Dr. P. B. Mason at Burton-on-Trent, with another taken by
Mr. Garneys in Suffolk, and a third from the collection of
the late Mr. Edwin Brown, of which the origin is unknown.
The Rev. J. Hellins beat out a larva from an alder near
Exeter in August 1870, which he was convinced belonged to
this species, but it unfortunately died; and another recorded
by the Rev. J. Greene as beaten out of hazel in Gloucester-
shire proved to be ichneumoned. Dr. F. B. W. White states
in his “ Lepidoptera of Scotland” that one was taken near
Paisley by Mr. Morris Young, but no date is given, nor any
indication whether this was a larva or an image. A specimen
“from Scotland,” formerly in Mr. Buxton’s collection, may
be the same individual. It has been stated, but not, I believe,
confirmed, that a larva has been found at the foot of an aspen
on Clapham Common, London. I know of no other records
in these Islands, and it is hard to believe these to be more
than the produce of casual and desultory immigration, rapidly
dying out under stress of climate. Abroad it does not seem
to be a very common species. Godart says that he has taken
it two or three times near Paris; but it seems to be found

118 EEPIDOPTERA:

throughout Central Europe, Southern Sweden, Piedmont,
Livonia, and Southern Russia; also in North America, but
called plagiata.

5. N. trepida, Hsp.—Expanse 2 to 2} inches. Fore wings
pale grey, with two black cross lines near the base, a row
of reddish spots near the hind margin, and a large dark grey
prominent tuft; hind wings whitish ; costal region mottled
with grey.

Antenne of the male strongly pectinated for a considerable
portion of their length, very shortly so toward the tip, the
rows of teeth standing away from each other, on nearly
opposite sides; pale reddish-brown. Head pale brown;
thorax very robust, densely covered with slightly raised, dark
brown scales having a yellowish gloss; and with blackish
stripes at the back of the collar, the sides of the shoulder
lappets and down the middle of the back; abdomen long
and rather stout, glossy light brown, with two upright crests,
or tufts of black scales, on the basal segment, a row of tufts
of light brown scales down each side, and a similar broad,
short anal tuft. Fore wings very long; costa straight to
beyond the middle, then rounded gently, in a long arch, to
the apex, which is blunt; hind margin much curved, very
long and oblique; dorsal margin very short, bent outward,
from near the base, into a broad obtuse angle, which is
crowned by a considerable projection of grey scales tipped
with black. Rather thinly scaled, whitish-grey, dusted all
over with long dark grey, or blackish, scales, which are
separately visible. Close to the base is a black bar from the
costa joining a black loop at the separation of the larger ner-
vures ; outside it a blackish dash toward the dorsal margin ;
first line black, broadly and repeatedly angulated ; second line
indicated by a black streak beyond the middle of the costa,
and a series of black dots on the nervures, joined together
by almost imperceptible scalloped shades; before this is
another blackish costal streak touching a discal lunule,

NOTODONTIDAE. 119

which is very slender, reddish, and surrounded by paler grey;
nervures beyond the middle indicated by interrupted black
lines; before the apex are two long reddish streaks, and
below them a row of ovate reddish spots parallel with the
hind margin; a dark grey line passing round the apex
becomes, upon the hind margin, a series of flat lunules
separated by the tips of the nervures ; cilia pale grey, tipped
with darker, and continued of a smcky-black and reddish
colour, round the anal angle on to the dorsal margin, where
it meets the prominent tuft, the dark line continuing across
its base. Hind wings semi-transparent white, tinged at the
base with yellowish, having the nervures yellowish, and the
costal region broadly shaded with grey, which is broken by a
commencement of an angulated cross line in accordance with
that visible on the costa of the fore wings; hind margin dark
grey interrupted by the nervures ; cilia pale grey.

Female with the antennze slightly toothed ; body stouter ;
fore wings rather more clothed with scales and with the
markings more distinct, the transverse lines being edged
with reddish ; otherwise similar.

Underside of all the wings whitish; fore wings grey at the
base; costa and nervures pale brown; marginal line dark
brown, interrupted ; body and leg tufts shining pale drab ;
tarsi dark brown, barred with white.

Usually not variable. Mr. W. M. Christy has reared, from
the egg, specimens of which the margins of the hind wings
are deeply scalloped ; this appears, however, to be somewhat
of a malformation.

On the wing from the end of April to the beginning of June.

Larva cylindrical, stout, smooth, slightly wrinkled at the
sides; last segments tapering; head large, pale green, darker
beneath ; dorsal line double, yellow; on each side of the sixth
to the twelfth segments is a row of conspicuous oblique yellow
dashes edged with crimson; a broad yellowish lateral stripe,
shaded with reddish cream-colour, passes diagonally from the

120 LEPIDOPTERA.

head to the edge of the fourth segment; subdorsal lines
indicated by yellowish dots; anal flap broadly outlined with
yellow; spiracles white, edged with black; head green with
four conspicuous pale lines in front, those in the middle
paler; outer edges of the lobes broadly margined with ferru-
ginous, edged with yellow ; legs and tips of prolegs reddish-
brown. (C. Fenn.) The anal segment is not usually elevated,
and the anal prolegs are of fair size; but the head and
anterior segments are thrown up in a singular manner during
repose, the reddish legs conspicuously visible in front. When
younger the dorsal and subdorsal lines are visible—pale green
or yellow—and the lines on the head yellow; the yellow
oblique lateral lines being brighter"and edged with brighter
crimson. When quite full-fed the whole larva becomes of a
dull purplish hue.

End of June, July, sometimes to the beginning of August,
on oak, feeding exposed on the leaves, clinging to them, or to
the twigs, with great tenacity. Somewhat difficult to rear
unless allowed plenty of fresh air, and frequently sprinkled
with water, which it likes to drink.

Pura elongate, cylindrical, rounded at both extremities ;
the margins of the wing-cases hardly projecting; dark
shining purplish-brown. Subterranean; enclosed in a large
flat oval cocoon compactly made of silk, and covered exter-
nally with grains of sand. (C. Fenn.) Usually placed at
the root of an oak-tree in a corner or under a sod of grass.
In this condition through the winter, and sometimes over a
second winter.

The moth flies only at night, probably not earlier than
10 p.m. It is readily attracted by a strong light, and has
occasionally been found sitting on the frame of a gas lamp,
looking from its grey colour, and extended downy legs, like
one of the lumps of mnd with which such lights are
commonly embellished by idle boys. The male has also been
captured toward midnight, though not in any numbers, by

NOTODONTIDE. 121

the aid of a freshly reared female. In the daytime it sits on
oak trunks and probably branches, also occasionally on
palings near them, but is always scarce, the great majority of
the specimens in collections being reared, either from the egg,
from captured larvee, or from pupz dug from the foot of oak-
trees. Although so uncommon it is widely distributed, and
formerly might be taken, rarely, in the London suburbs; still
found in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hants (more frequently in
the New Forest), Dorset, more commonly in South Devon—
rare in the north of the county—and in Cornwall. Not very
rare in Berks, Bucks, Oxfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.
Found rarely in Carmarthenshire, Gloucestershire, Worcester-
shire, Herefordshire, Sherwood Forest, Notts, North Stafford-
shire, and Yorkshire. There is a single record in 1851 at
Delamere Forest, Cheshire, and one specimen, taken in Cum-
berland, is in the collection of Mr. G. Dawson at Carlisle.
Excessively rare in Scotland, but Sir Thomas Moncrieff
obtained a larva at Moncrieff Hill, Perthshire, in 1874, which
he reared, and there are records in Clydesdale and Kirkcud-
brightshire. In Ireland it was recorded by Mr. E. Birchall,
but apparently without sufficient evidence. Abroad it is
widely distributed through Central Europe, Eastern Spain,
Italy, Corsica, South Sweden, Livonia, and Southern Russia.

6..N. torva, Hiib.—Expanse 2 inches, Fore wings
rather broadly ovate, dark grey, with faintly yellowish cross-
lines and black prominent tuft; hind wings grey,

Antenne regularly pectinated to near the tips, where the
teeth become extremely short; light brown. Head grey,
and, with the thorax, densely covered with rather raised
scales; thorax dark grey with a black stripe down the
margin of each shoulder-lappet, and also edged behind with
black; abdomen moderately long and stout, pale greyish
brown, regularly tufted down the sides, and with a short
broad anal tuft. Fore wings ovate; costa gently rounded,
more so toward the apex, which is hardly angulated ; hind

122 LEPIDOPTERA.

margin long, oblique and. much rounded; dorsal margin
slightly curved and having in the middle a small triangular
black prominent tuft; grey, much dusted with pale yellowish;
first line very faint, perpendicular, indented throughout,
darker grey, edged inside with yellowish ; second line oblique,
but bending back to the costa, indented throughout, dark
grey edged outwardly with yellowish; outside this is a
straight row of about four obscure yellowish clouds toward
the apex of the wing, and a row of dark grey cloudy dots,
followed by.a faintly yellowish line near the hind margin ;
the discal streak is short, black, enclosed in a large yellowish
lunule. All these markings are most obscure, the effect
being merely a mottled-grey. Hind marginal line black ;
cilia grey dashed with black. Hind wings pale grey or
whitish-grey; nervures faintly darker; in the middle is a
slight transverse whitish stripe followed by a darker shade of
grey ; at the anal angle is a darker grey cloud containing two |
or three black dots; cilia whitish dashed with grey, and
having a dark grey line at the base. Female with rather
shorter antennee, which are slightly dentated; fore wings
rather broader ; hind wings darker; otherwise similar.

Underside of the male pale smoky-brown with browner
costa and a faint smoky band crossing all the wings; cilia of
the fore wings whitish, distinctly spotted with black ; in the
centre of the hind wings is a dusky lunule; body and legs
light brown. Of the female dark grey, with a whitish trans-
verse stripe, and blackish lunules on all the wings.

On the wing in May and June, and, ina second generation,
in August.

Larva grey, pale or dark, mixed with yellow and lilac;
head grey dotted with darker; on the fifth and sixth
segments are dorsal, broad, elevated prominences, and on the
eleventh a yellow-spotted conical hump. From the head to
the sixth segment is a blackish dorsal stripe edged with
white ; spiracular line white; spiracles black bordered with
white ; under surface dark grey with lateral white dots. So

NOTODONTIDZ. 123

similar to the larva of WV. ziczac as to be difficult to distinguish
from it, but usually darker.

June and July, and again in the autumn, on poplar and
aspen.

Pupa stout and cylindrical, rounded in front, and tapering
off suddenly and very abruptly behind; indeed almost as
much rounded off as in’ front, and with two or three short
bent spines placed abruptly on the curved end. Dark brown,
wing-cases longitudinally striated.

In a thin white silky cocoon, very tough and strong, between
leaves or underground. In this condition through the winter.

The moth flies, like its allies, at night, but nothing is
known of its habits in the perfect state in this country.
Only one reliable British specimen is known. It was reared
by Mr. Frank Norgate, formerly of Sparham, Norfolk, now
of Bury St. Edmund’s, from either an egg or larva found by
him in North Norfolk in July or August 1882; but as the
eggs there found produced what were supposed to be dark
varieties of the larva of WV. ziczac, they were not kept separate
from other JV. ziczac larvee also found in the same division of
Norfolk. Most unfortunately these larvee did not receive
sufficient attention, mainly because the captor was then
travelling a good deal, and but one moth was reared, which
Mr. Norgate placed, with doubt, in his series of NV. trepida,
to which it bears considerable resemblance. From that
series I had the pleasure of separating it. No subsequent
indication of the presence of the species with us has been
obtained, and the larvee may have been the result of a casual
immigration. Yet the species seems a very probable denizen
of the Eastern Counties.

Abroad it is rather local, and apparently never very
common, but found in France, Belgium, Germany, Switzer-

land, Piedmont, Finland, Central and Kastern Russia, and
Tartary.

7. N. dromedarius, Z.—Expanse 1} to2inches. Fore

124 LEPIDOPTERA.

wings dark purple-brown clouded with yellow and rust-red ;
a prominent tuft of purple-brown scales; hind wings brown

or grey.

Antenne of the male rather short, pectinated with mode-
rately long, solid, ciliated teeth ; becoming very short and
broad toward the tip; light brown. Head golden-brown ;
thorax robust, densely covered with long recumbent scales,
reddish-brown ; shoulder-lappets purple-brown; abdomen
stout, dull grey-brown, sometimes faintly banded with
reddish-brown, tufted at the tail and down the sides. Fore
wings elongated, rather narrow, broader beyond the middle ;
costa nearly straight, or even a little hollowed in the middle,
convex toward the apex, which is very suddenly rounded,
almost pointed ; hind margin oblique, regularly curved, the
curve passing smoothly round to the dorsal margin, on which,
just before the middle, is a loose triangular tuft, or prominent,
of projecting purple-brown scales. Colour dull purple-brown;
basal area clouded with rust-red, and having a large yellow
spot toward the costa divided by the median nervure; first
transverse line perpendicular, regularly indented and rippled,
whitish and yellowish, edged with red; second line slightly
curved and oblique, regularly scalloped between the nervures,
whitish at the costa, becoming more yellowish, brightly so
near the dorsal margin, edged inside throughout with dark
brown ; at the anal angle is a large rust-red spot joined to
the extremity of the yellow second line, and from it a row of
red crescents parallel with the hind margin and bending
inward at the apex; hind margin edged with a dark brown
line ; at the end of the discal cell is a perpendicular, long, rust-
red streak in a yellowish edging ; cilia brown, darkest at the
nervures, tipped between them with white. Hind wings pale
brownish-grey, with a faint, whitish, transverse, cloudy stripe
beyond the middle, outside which the ground colour is darker;
cilia whitish.

Female rather larger ; antenne slightly toothed and abund-

NOTODONTIDEA. 125

antly ciliated; abdomen stouter; fore wings broader, with
rounded costa; otherwise similar.

Underside pale brown; more yellowish round the hind
margins, with a faintly reddish submarginal stripe; all the
wings with a rust-red central lunule; body golden-brown ;
legs red-brown.

Variation in this species is distinctly local and climatal.
The form described is that of the southern half of England.
In the Midlands darker specimens, having less of the yellow
and rusty colouring, occur in every shade of variation ; while
in Scotland and Ireland, and in the North and North-West of
England, the form usually found is that named perfusca, in
which the red and yellow colouring are much restricted or
obliterated, the fore wings becoming in some instances
entirely dark purple-brown except a faintly pale blotch at
the base. Usually, however, some traces of the reddish or
yellowish colour of the transverse lines is visible, with the
rusty spot at the anal angle. This northern form has also a
pale aberration in which the fore wings are of a pale semi-
transparent purplish. Mr C. 8. Gregson has one of a creamy-
white with faintly yellowish markings. Aberrations also
occur in the typical southern race, the rusty colouring being
much developed. Mr. I. J. Hanbury has one, obtained in
Norfolk, of which the fore wings are almost totally suffused
with rust-red. A specimen from the New Forest, in Mr.
W. H. B. Fletcher’s collection, is of a pale chestnut-brown,
without dark clouding except in the central space between
the two lines; and another, of a fuller brown, has the central
space bluish grey.

On the wing in May and June, and, as a partial second
generation, in July or August. So far as I can ascertain
only single-brooded in the North and West, occurring in
June and July.

Larva stout, but tapering anteriorly from the sixth
segment, and sloping back from the apex of the twelfth.

126 LEPIDOPTERA.

Small, retractile, and slightly recurved humps on the fifth,
sixth, seventh, and eighth segments, and another, rather
conical and pointing forward, on the twelfth. Head larger
than the second segment, notched, rounded, rather flattened
in front; anal prolegs raised in repose. Yellowish-green
shading into sulphur-yellow on the back; a broad lilac
dorsal stripe from the second to the fifth segment; all the
humps tipped and marked with reddish-lilac; spiracles
purplish, edged and centred with white; a yellow spiracular
shade is only distinct on the middle segments and terminates
on the tenth, where it is continued down the prolegs, and
edged with a conspicuous, oblique, purple dash. Below the
spiracular shade is an ill-defined purplish stripe, often much
waved, continued on the prolegs. Under surface rather
shining grass-green, tinged with purplish, ferruginous, or
orange-brown, with a purplish central line on the eleventh
and twelfth segments. Head pinkish-brown dotted with
black; legs and prolegs tipped with purplish. When young
pale reddish-ochreous or light chocolate, the dorsal shade
darker and the humps often tipped with ochreous. (C.
Fenn.)

June, July, August, and, where double brooded, also in
September and October. On birch, alder, and hazel.

Pupa stout, rounded, anal extremity very round, with three
minute diverging spikes; glossy dark brown. In a rather
large cocoon of silk mixed with loose earth, underground,
often at the foot of a tree. In this condition through the
winter, in rare instances through two winters.

The moth flies at night only, but is very rarely, if ever,
captured during flight. An occasional specimen may be found
in the daytime sitting on a fence or a tree trunk, but the
vast majority of the specimens in collections are reared, the
larva being, at times, not scarce on birch and alder. From
the secluded habits of the moth, however, it seems more rare
that it really is. Probably its favourite place of repose is on

NOTODONTIDA. 127

a branch, indeed it is occasionally shaken out of a tree by
beating for larvee. Very widely distributed, the typical form
being found in woods and wooded districts, throughout the
Southern and South-Eastern Counties to Norfolk, where, in
the fens, the darker variety begins to appear. Westward,
however, the latter attains a far more southern distribution,
since it is the dominant form in South Devon. On the other
hand, specimens having the typical colouring have been found
so far north as Cumberland ; and in one of these forms, or
both, with intermediates, the insect appears to occupy suit-
able districts throughout England, being almost common
in the mosses of Lancashire and Cheshire. Apparently
scarce in Wales, my only record being from near Swansea.
Not rare in Scotland. Said by Mr. Wm. Evans to have been,
thirty years ago, quite common in the Hdinburgh district,
now far scarcer; found also in Perthshire, Clydesdale, and in
other districts to Moray and Argyle. In Ireland widely
distributed—Wicklow, Sligo, Donegal and Londonderry.
Abroad it is found throughout Central Europe, and in
Sweden and Finland.

8. N. bicolora, Hiid.; bicoloria, Stawd. Cat.—Expanse

1dinch. Pure white; fore wings with an orange dorsal blotch
edged with black.

Antenne of the male regularly pectinated to near the tip,
where the teeth become extremely short; light brown ; shaft
white. Head and thorax densely covered with raised, downy,
white scales of considerable length ; abdomen not very stout,
white, with a yellowish band at the base, and a thick con-
verging white anal tuft. Fore wings rather broad and short ;
costa gently arched; apex angulated ; hind margin strongly
but regularly curved ; dersal margin rounded, and having in
the middle a rather long tuft of prominent scales—white
tipped with brown. Colour pure glistening white ; edge of
costa from the base smoky-black ; first line composed of three
or four disconnected black streaks in a perpendicular direction,

28 LEPIDOPTERA.

but not attaining either margin, each black streak having
attached outwardly a small blotch of rich orange, that nearest
the dorsal margin extended along, between the nervures,
almost to the anal angle, but interrupted by a short black
line of dots which forms part of a normal second line, only
indicated by two, three, or four, more indistinct dots ; at the
dorsal margin, between the orange blotch and the prominent
tuft, is an aggregation of minute black-brown dots; cilia
rather long, white. Hind wings rounded, pure shining
white; cilia long and loose, white. Female with antenne
very faintly dentated ; edge of costa white ; otherwise similar.
Underside of wings, body, and legs wholly pure white.
On the wing in May and June.

Larva cylindrical, slightly thicker behind the middle, and
with a slight swelling on the back of the twelfth segment ;
anal prolegs of normal appearance, but small and usually
elevated during repose. Head green, the lobes olive-green,
upper portion reticulated with whitish ; body of a delicate
green, shining, much suffused with whitish on the back ;
dorsal line darker green ; subdorsal lines yellowish and having
below them another slender yellowish longitudinal line, be-
tween which and the spiracular stripe is a darker green space ;
spiracular stripe broad, bright yellow; spiracles black in a
white ring ; under surface deep green; legs black; prolegs
green, those of the body barred with black. When young
greener, the subdorsal lines whitish. (Condensed from
Buckler.)

End of June and July, on Birch ; when very young gnaw-
ing the surface of the leaves, afterwards eating them in the
usual manner.

Pura very cylindrical, of almost uniform, moderate
stoutness, the thorax slightly keeled, but rounded off at the
head ; tail rounded and but little tapering ; a fine punctate
roughness nearly all over ; colour brownish-black and rather
shining. Ina thin cocoon of greenish-grey silk, but tolerably

NOTODONTID 2. 129

compact ; between leaves which were closely united round it.
(W. Buckler.) In this condition through the winter.

A very rare species in this country, and little is known of
its habits. The first specimen known to have occurred in
these islands was taken in the middle of June 1859, at
Killarney, in the south-west of Ireland, by Mr. P. Bouchard,
a professional collector. It was understood to have been
beaten out of a birch, but he was naturally reticent as to its
habits. Several more were taken by him in the same place
—Mr. 8. Stevens believes seven or eight—and the wings of
one were found at the foot of atree. Doubt was subsequently
raised as to the genuineness of the captures, but Mr. 8. J.
Capper tells me that when he visited Killarney the residents
showed him the very tree on which one of what they called
‘** Micolora” was taken; and I think that there is no reason
to suspect fraud in this case. In June 1861, Mr. John
Smith, an artisan from Manchester, had the good fortune to
secure a Specimen in an extensive wood, known as the Burnt
Wood, in North Staffordshire. This was exhibited at Man-
chester, and led to an expedition by Mr. Joseph Chappell, a
well-known Manchester collector, to the same place in June
1865, when he and a friend had the good fortune to obtain
six examples, by beating birch trees and bushes. One of
these laid a number of eggs, the larvae from which were ¢are-
fully tended, but they proved extremely delicate and most of
them died, seven only producing the perfect insects. Opera-
tions in that wood appear to have been stopped by the game-
keepers, and I know of no more recent captures there. In
1866 .another specimen seems to have been secured at
Killarney, but here the favonred locality has been destroyed
by the cutting down of the birch trees, and there are no
further records from this spot. Mr. W. F.de Vismes Kane,
however, states that two specimens have been obtained in the
County of Kerry by Miss Vernon, and he exhibited one of these
in London in 1892. Major J. N. Still possesses a single

VOL. III, I

130 LEPIDOPTERA.

specimen, the capture of which near Exeter, Devon, in 1880,
appears to have been satisfactorily proved ; and this I think
completes the record of captures in the United Kingdom.
Apparently no locality exists here in which its occurrence can
be confidently reckoned upon.

Not a very common species abroad, but found in France,
Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Livonia, Finland, and Russia.
Mr. W. F. Kirby records the occurrence in the last-named
country of specimens devoid both of the black and the orange
markings, consequently pure white.

Genus 4. DRYMONTIA.

Antenne of the male pectinated throughout, the teeth
shorter toward the tip, but not broadened ; fore wings rather
narrow with blunt apex, and having, on the dorsal margin, a
very small prominent tuft.

Larv& cylindrical, smooth, without prominences.

Pup in cocoons in the earth.

1. D. chaonia, Hiib—Expanse, 14 inch. Fore wings
rather narrow, purple-grey, with the central space, and a
stripe on each side of it, white; a black lunule; hind wings
ereyish-white.

Antennee of the male strongly pectinated, bright light
brown ; head and collar shining white; thorax stout, covered
with long raised scales, purple-brown, more or less mixed
with silvery-white ; abdomen moderately stout ; light brown
with a short dense anal tuft, and slender, paler tufts down
the sides. Fore wings rather narrow, with the costa straight
to near the apex, thence very slightly rounded ; apex bluntly
angulated, hind margin rounded, not very oblique; dorsal
margin but slightly curved and with an extremely small
blackish prominent tuft. Colour paler or darker purplish-
grey ; base whitish barred with two black crescents, forming

NOTODONTIDE. 131

a partial basal line ; first transverse line almost straight and
perpendicular, thick, black, edged inwardly by a slender
white stripe; second line dark purple-grey, erect from the
dorsal margin, then bent outward, closely indented through-
out, and edged outwardly by a similarly indented white
stripe; space between these two transverse lines white,
usually with a slender cloudy-grey transverse stripe or shade,
either in the middle or near to the first line ; toward the hind
margin is usually a faintly indicated whitish transverse line ;
at the end of the discal cell, in the white central band, is a
distinct elongated black spot or lunule; cilia greyish-white,
dashed with dark grey. Hind wings rounded; whitish, with
brown nervures ; a faintly grey shading from the base and a
ereyish cloud across the middle; hind margin pale-brown ;
cilia brown, partially tipped with white. Female with simple
antennze, the body stouter, fore wings usually of a deep
purple-brown, hind wings pale grey ; otherwise similar.

Underside of the fore wings grey with the nervures darker,
costal margin tinged with glossy yellow; central lunule, and
a band crossing it, dark grey; hind wings white, with a
partial irregular dark grey central stripe; body glossy
yellow-grey ; legs brown with extremely large fluffy tufts,
which are pale silvery grey, or whitish.

Variation in this species is mainly in the depth of the
ground colour, the purple-grey being in some instances varied
with whitish clouding ; in other, more rare, cases the white
central band is obscured with grey, but the dark lunule or
’ stigma is always visible. A specimen in Mr. W. H. B.
Fletcher's collection has merely a broad white central band,
without transverse lines or markings, except the central
lunule ; outside the white band the hind marginal area in
this example is unicolorous grey.

On the wing at the end of April and in May.

Larva cylindrical, fat, glossy, head flattened in front,
rounded, shining pale green ; body green, dorsal region blue-

192 LEPIDOPTERA.

green, with two opaque yellow dorsal lines ; subdorsal lines
yellow, or when full grown broken up into rows of irregular
yellow spots; spiracular lines distinct, yellow, edged above
with dark green, but on segments two to four tinged with
pink; the yellow line is carried round the anal segment 3
spiracles pinkish ringed with black, and each followed by a
white spot ; undersurface wrinkled, glaucous green ; legs and
prolegs similar. (Condensed from Buckler.)

June and July on oak, usually on detached trees in fields
or parks or the more open woods. ‘The larva lies along the
midrib on the underside of an oak leaf, and clings very tightly.
It is delicate and difficult to rear from the egg, requiring the
closest attention, and occasional sprinkling with water.

Pupa stout and rounded at each end ; broad at the base of
the abdomen ; smooth, deep mahogany brown. In a some-
what ovate cocoon of yellow-brown silk, mixed with earth ;
in the ground, usually at the foot of an oak tree. In this
state from August through the winter.

The moth emerges from the pupa in the middle of the
afternoon and may then be found, occasionally, on oak trunks
or palings. It is, however, restless, and probably ascends
quickly to the trees. It flies at dusk with great swiftness ;
indeed the Rev. Joseph Greene, who has dug up and reared
very many of the pup, says that the male is ‘“‘ a furious and
distracted flier, and speedily spoils itself.” It will come to a
strong light in its haunts, but does not seem to affect the
suburbs of towns. Never common, but occurring in open
oak districts in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Berks, Bucks,
Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, sometimes almost
common in South Devon; rare in Norfolk, Suffolk, Derby-
shire, and near Doncaster, Yorks; very rare in Worcester-
shire, Cheshire, and Cumberland, and once taken, twenty-five
years ago, in North Staffordshire. Apparently rare in Wales,
but found near Swansea. Also rare in the South of Scotland

NOTODONTIDZ. 133

—one taken in the Torwood, Stirlingshire—and said to occur
at Moncrieff Hill, Perthshire.

In Ireland scarce in Wicklow and Kerry, reported to be
more frequent in Galway.

Abroad it is found over the greater part of Central Europe,
in Piedmont, Livonia, and Southern Russia.

2. D. Dodoneea, Schiff.; trimacula, Staud. Cat.—
Expanse 14 inch. Fore wings rather narrow, purple-brown,
with a broad central white band in which is no trace of a
central lunule; hind margin marbled with white; hind
wings pale brownish-grey.

Antenne of the male strongly pectinated, ight brown ;
head white ; thorax stout, densely covered with long recumbent
scales, white, or mixed grey and white, edged at the back
aud along the shoulder lappets with black; abdomen mode-
rately stout, light brown, with a rather loose anal tuft, and
long slender tufts down the sides. Fore wings somewhat
narrow ; costa faintly concave in the middle, very slightly
rounded beyond ; apex suddenly rounded, almost angulated ;
hind margin gently rounded; dorsal margin slightly, but
gracefully curved and with a very small blackish prominent
tuft. Colour purplish-brown, whitish at the extreme base,
where are two black spots indicating a sort of basal line ;
first transverse line black, obscured by the ground colour,
much curved, edged inside with white, and the latter in some
instances partially again with black; second line indistinct,
indented, not very oblique, duplicated and having a shining
white intermediate stripe. The broad central band between
these two lines is sharply divided, the anterior portion being
of the ground colour and with its edge concave, the remaining
portion white ; but it never contains any central lunule or
spot. Hind margin clouded with whitish, sometimes almost
wholly white, the dark colour remaining as a broad triangular
blotch on the costa near the apex, containing blacker streaks,
and more or less connected along the outside of the second

134 LEPIDOPTERA.

line with another dark blotch at the anal angle; cilia white,
interrupted by large purplish-black spots. Hind wings
scarcely rounded, the hind margin being rather sinuous ;
very pale greyish-brown, with a straight whiter band across
the middle; nervures darker; cilia pale-brownish, spotted
with darker. Female with antenne simple, otherwise similar.

Underside of all the wings whitish-grey, with the nervures
rather darker, and crossed by two indistinct white transverse
stripes ; body and legs yellowish-brown, the latter with large
white tufts.

Variable in colour and in the extent to which the dark
portions are clouded with white or with brownish ; or on the
other hand the white central band is sometimes suffused with
ervey. In Mr. F. Bond’s collection is one in which the fore
wings are wholly of the dark colouring ; in that of Mr. F. N.
Pierce, a lovely male having the fore wings almost entirely
white, the transverse lines alone being just visible. Mr.
Sydney Webb has a beautiful male in which the white central
band is extremely broad, and sharply edged with the two dark
transverse lines, which are shaded off outwardly.

On the wing at the end of May and in June.

Larva rather elongated, narrowed at each end; sides keeled ;
skin shining and transversely wrinkled ; head large, rounded
and highly polished, green. Colour bright green, with two
parallel yellow dorsal lines, and less noticeable subdorsal lines
composed of numerous yellow spots most distinct on the
anterior segments. A conspicuous narrow yellow spiracular
stripe, on which the white-ringed black spiracles are placed
in pink blotches ; a purple line margins the upper edge of this
spiracular band, which is continuous from head to tail.
(C. Fenn.)

July, August, and the beginning of September, on oak.
Said also to feed occasionally on beech and birch ; if so this
is here very rarely the case. The Rev. Bernard Smith states
that it nestles in chinks of the bark of trees in the day-time.

NOTODONTIDZ. 135

Pura stout, rounded, anal extremity round, with very
minute bristles. Dark purplish brown. In a compact, hard,
oval cocoon of silk and earth. Underground, usually at the
roots of oak trees. In this state through the winter. The
Rev. Joseph Greene, who has dug up hundreds of the pupe,
says “search the friable sods collected in the corners of the
roots, or the corners themselves without any sod. The cocoon
is sometimes attached to the tree, but more usually among
the grass-roots ; in either case great caution is necessary.
When you have pulled the sod out, put your hand in, and
gently feel the trunk for any cocoons which may adhere to it.
When the sod is loosely attached to the tree, and not between
the roots, and the soil is dry and friable, this is a favoured
locality with larvee. By taking hold of the grass and pulling
it gently the sod can easily be removed and the pupz will
fall down; or if spun up, will, not uncommonly, be found
fixed to the trunk, or that part of the sod which lay against
it.” This excellent information is applicable to many species
besides the present.

Like the previous species, this moth may, occasionally, be
found in the afternoon sitting upon a tree-trunk, or paling,
close to the place of its emergence. At night it flies with
great vigour and swiftness, and the male may be readily
secured by means of a strong light. I have even known it
to fly into a house. Most attached to open parks, and scat-
tered oak timber, but found also in woods. More frequent
than D. chaonia, and though never very common, found
throughout the Southern half of England, to Nottinghamshire,
Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and Herefordshire, though very
scarce in Norfolk and Suffolk. It has been taken in Warwick-
shire, is extremely local in Yorkshire, and in Cheshire very
rare. In Wales only recorded from the Swansea district ;
in Scotland from Clydesdale and the Solway district. Mr.
E. Birchall’s record, ‘“ Not uncommon at Killarney,” seems
to have been a mistake. Abroad it is somewhat local, but

136 LEPIDOPTERA.

found in many parts of Central and Hastern Hurope, and in
Piedmont.

Genus 5. LOPHOPTERYX.

Antenne of the male pectinated with very short, broad,
almost squared teeth, which are ciliated, and lengthened by
tufts of fine hairs. Fore wings rather broad behind, with
the hind margin scalloped ; a distinct prominent tuft on the
dorsal margin.

Larv& cylindrical with small humps; having sixteen legs,
the anal pair but little used.

Pup in a silken cocoon.

1. L. carmelita, Hsp.—Expanse, 1} to 1? inch. Fore
wings soft red-brown, shaded off with pale grey ; having a
dark dorsal prominent tuft and two yellow costal spots ; hind
wings very little paler.

Antenne of the male pectinated with extremely short broad
teeth surmounted by long tufts of fine hairs which form the
apparent pectinations, light brown ; head densely scaled, dark
red-brown. Thorax rather broad and squared, densely
covered with raised red-brown scales, but not conspicuously
tufted; shoulder-lappets raised and tipped with white ;
hinder portion edged with a yellowish line, followed by a
blackish transverse bar on a slight crest, behind which is a
short pale-grey triangular patch ; abdomen rather long, thick,
and very cylindrical, with a blunt apical tuft, and a slight
ridge of reddish tufts down each side. ore wings moderately
broad ; costa very gently curved throughout ; apex angulated ;
hind margin slightly oblique to the middle, then bent and
suddenly more oblique, scalloped throughout ; dorsal margin
straight almost to the base, and having a projecting tooth-
like tuft of mixed brown and black scales, edged with white.
Colour soft red-brown, darkest along the costa, shading off,

NOTODONTIDE. 137

with a close dusting of whitish or bluish-grey scales be-
tween the nervures, gradually to the dorsal margin, at the
base of which, and also at the anal angle, is a blotch of greyish-
white devoid of the reddish colour; usual transverse lines
very faint, the first indicated by a yellow spot on the costa,
from which passes an irregular thread of dark colouring
hardly visible except on the nervures, to before the prominent
tuft ; second line indicated by a larger, triangular, yellow
spot, beyond the middle of the costa, from which a similar
faint line of dots on the nervures and angulated, hardly
visible, lines between them, passes obliquely back to the
prominent tuft; nervures generally indicated by brownish
lines and a few faint yellow dots; hind margin strongly
scalloped with brown crescents, the tips of which interrupt
the cilia at the nervures ; cilia in the hollows of the crescents
pale yellowish. Hind wings rather paler reddish brown,
palest toward the base, shading to a purplish blotch at the
anal angle ; this blotch is divided by a whitish bar, which is
continued as a faint pale line across the wing ; hind margin
with brown scallops, enclosing yellowish cilia, as in the fore
wings. Female with antennee merely dentated and fringed
with very short bristles, very slightly larger and stouter, but
extremely similar.

Underside of all the wings bright chestnut at the margins,
shading to pale reddish-grey in the middle; beyond the
middle of the fore wings is a bright yellow spot, from which a
slender undulating pale line passes across the middle of all
the wings ; cilia scalloped, brown, edged with bright white in
the hollows; body and legs dark foxy-red.

Not variable. This is perhaps the most softly coloured
and shaded of all our native moths.

On the wing from the middle of April to the middle of
May.

Larva stout, with polished surface, tapering considerably
to each extremity ; slightly projecting at the sides and having

138 LEPIDOPTERA.

deep transverse wrinkles. Head small, rounded, green, I-
side edges of the lobes marked with yellowish ; body bright
yellowish-green, undersurface flattened, darker green ; dorsal
line indistinctly darker green ; spiracular stripe broad, con-
spicuous, yellow, containing a pink spot on each segment
and edged above with darker green; spiracles black ; legs
and prolegs green. (C. Kenn.) When younger similar in
colour and markings but more cylindrical.

May and June on birch, usually in shady places, rather
avoiding the light. When young it keeps to the underside
of the leaf sitting along the midrib.

Pura elongate, incisions deeply cleft; anal segment round,
smooth, without projections. Very dark purplish-brown. In
a moderately strong compact cocoon, of silk and sand, under
moss, or beneath the surface of the ground. (C. Fenn.)

In this condition through the winter.

The moth flies at night but very little is known of its
habits, since it is scarcely ever observed on the wing. It
emerges from pupa in the morning, and usually sits during
the day not far from the ground on a birch trunk or on a
neighbouring paling, generally in a shady sheltered place,
but is always very scarce, even in its few favoured localities.
The vast majority of specimens in cabinets have been reared
from the egg. Formerly found at Birch Wood, Surrey, and
Darenth Wood, Kent; and more frequently at West Wickham
Wood in the latter county, where it still lingers. I have
taken it near Haslemere in the extreme south of Surrey, and
other captures are on record in- Sussex, the New Forest,
Hants, and in Berks, as well as a single larva in Suffolk.
But it may reasonably be expected to occur in any district of
the South of England in which birch is abundant, as it is
very easily overlooked, the moth being wonderfully like a
broken slice of the birch bark. It appears to occur regularly,
though rarely, at Keswick, Cumberland, but I know of no
intermediate locality. In Scotland, Mr. P. Cameron has

NOTODONTIDZ.. 139

recorded it at Ardentinny in Clydesdale, and Dr. F. Buchanan
White in Argyleshire, Moray, and the Tay district.

Abroad it is widely distributed over the greater part of
Central Europe, and in Sweden, Livonia, and Esthonia, but is
always rather scarce.

2. L. Camelina, Z.—Expanse 14 to 13 inch. Fore
wings chestnut-brown with a large dark brown projecting
tuft on the dorsal margin. Thorax crested, with a cocks’-
comb-like tuft.

Antenne of the male very shortly pectinated, with square
flat teeth fringed at the tips with fine bristles; reddish
brown. Head tufted, especially so at the base of the antenne,
red-brown; collar similar, upright; thorax crested with a
very high tuft of upstanding scales forming quite a remark-
able cock’s-comb, red-brown or chestnut-brown in front, and
tipped and lined with dark red-brown, pale drab, or
yellowish-brown behind ; shoulder lappets lifted, red-brown
tipped with darker; abdomen moderately stout and
cylindrical, pale drab or very pale brown, with a dense, stiff,
squared and depressed, red-brown anal tuft. Fore wings
moderately broad; costa slightly arched at the base, thence
nearly straight to the apex, which is sharply but squarely
angulated ; hind margin regularly scalloped, perpendicular
below the apex, then very full and rounded ; dorsal margin
curved and having in its centre a large, triangular, pro-
jecting, dark brown tuft of scales. Chestnut-brown with paler
transverse shades; first line slender, indistinct, zig-zagged
between all the nervures, dark red-brown ; second line still
less distinct, very oblique, excessively zig-zagged where
visible, but often appearing only as a series of dark red-
brown dashes on nervures, with a paler parallel stripe, but
sometimes with a duplicate dark line, and often clouded
with darker, forming an oblique stripe; nervures faintly
indicated by dark dashes or dots; the prominent tuft has on
each side a black streak; cilia red-brown, sharply scalloped,

140 LEPIDOPTERA.

agreeing with the margin. In some specimens a pale reni-
form cloudy spot’ indicates the usual discal spot, which in
this group is so often suppressed, and in rare instances a
second cloudy spot before it is visible in the discal cell. Hind
wings rounded, reddish-white or very light reddish-brown,
paler at the base ; a rather broad darker submarginal band ; at
the anal angle a patch of bluish glistening scales edged with
black, and above it two black spots; cilia at this portion
chestnut, remainder pale red-brown. Female with antennz
slightly indented, a little stouter, otherwise quite similar.

Underside unicolorous pale reddish-brown, the hind wings
rather the paler; cilia of both dark brown ; body and legs
chestnut-brown ; anal tuft rather lobed, darker red.

Variation in this species appears to be somewhat: climatal.
The type, as described, is rather constant in all the southern
and eastern districts of England; but specimens sent by
Major J. N. Still from Dartmoor, Devon, have in some cases
the reddish colour much clouded and hidden by deep
umbreous, and the prominent tuft black; in others the
general colour umbreous with the darker portions suffused
with a bluish bloom. Durham specimens sent by Mr. J.
Gardner are of a very smooth clear dark red, but with the
prominent tuft black ; from Pembrokeshire they are of a rich
dark chestnut with strong umbreous markings. In Scotland
variation seems to take three directions—paler reddish to
pale buff, with the cilia darker; paler umbreous-brown
without any tinge of red ; and bright chestnut without darker
markings, the prominent tuft being also red. One in Mr.
W. H. B. Fletcher’s collection is of a most delicate pale
umbreous with darker nervures and a faint second line; in
the late Mr. F. Bond’s collection is one of a dull yellow-
brown with a very dark distinct central transverse stripe ;
and every possible intermediate shade seems to exist.

On the wing in May and June, and as a second generation
in July, August, or even the beginning of September.
Almost completely double-brooded in the South; partially so

NOTODONTIDE. 141

as it advances northward; probably having but one genera-
tion in the year in most parts of Scotland.

Larva cylindrical, transversely wrinkled; head large,
rounded, shining; twelfth segment with two projecting
upright tubercles. Head pale green with a few dark hairs,
similar hairs on the second and thirteenth segments and
from the usual lateral spots; mouth yellow; body pale
whitish-green on the back, shading into dark green on the
sides and undersurface ; dorsal line bluish, distinct; sub-
dorsal lines yellow, margined above with a pale grey streak ;
spiracular lines distinct, greenish-yellow ; tubercles on the
back of the twelfth segment tipped with bright red ; spiracles
black, edged with white, each followed by a small red spot ;
a line of white dots above the spiracles and other white dots
below ; legs and prolegs red. (C. Fenn.)

Variable—Buckler figures one larva of a lilac colour with
white spiracular line and purple head and undersurface ;
another with the general colour bright yellowish-brown, with
the dorsal line dark purple edged with whitish-yellow, and
the spiracular line yellow; and another with a light brown head,
green dorsal region broadly barred with white, sides yellowish-
pink, and undersurface purplish-green. It may, however, always
be known by its curious pair of slender dorsal tubercles.

June, July, and in a second generation in September,
October, and occasionally even November; on oak, birch,
hazel, sallow, beech, and hawthorn.

Pupa rounded, slightly elongated, anal segment with a
spike; dull dark purplish-brown. In a silken cocoon mixed
with earth, usually attached to a stone or to a root under-
ground. (C. Fenn.) Often at the foot of an oak, elm, or
beech tree. In this condition through the winter, and
occasionally remaining over a second winter. In other cases
pupa which have passed through the winter, and from which
the moths have not emerged in the spring, produce them at
the time of the usual second brood,

142 LEPIDOPTERA.

I have on one occasion captured the moth flying in the
sunshine in the afternoon. ‘his, however, was quite excep-
tional; its time of flight is at night from 10 p.m. till midnight,
and it comes willingly to light, settling down very quickly on
the frame of a lamp and at once looking exactly like a
rolled-up leaf casually sticking there. The males also
assemble readily to a freshly emerged female. In the day-
time it may occasionally be found sitting upon a fence or a
tree-trunk just after emergence, but it always prefers to sit
among the leaves on a branch of a tree or in a bush,
sometimes quite openly upon a leaf or a fern frond. It runs
little risk from this exposed position, since its bright brown
colour, its tall thoracic crest, and its large prominent tuft,
combined, give it the most extraordinary likeness to a curled-
up brown leaf, or a little bunch of fir-scales, a likeness so
accurate that I am not ashamed to confess that I have picked
up specimens in my fingers, puzzled by their appearance, yet
not recognising them as moths. Not an abundant species, but
to be found in moderate numbers in woods and open-wooded
country, throughout the three kingdoms, except, apparently,
the Scottish Isles. Abroad, it is common through Northern,
Central, and parts of Hastern Europe, Siberia and Tartary.
Probably also in India, since a black-brown form from that
country, known as saturata, Walker, seems very probably to
be no more than a variety of this species.

3. L. cucullina, Schiff. ; cuculla, Staud. Cat.—Expanse
14 to 1g inch. Fore wings yellowish, with chestnut clouds,
a whitish hind-marginal blotch and a blackish dorsal pro-
minent; hind wings with a divided dark spot at the anal

angle.

Antenne of the male pectinated with short broad teeth
which are tipped and edged with fine bristles, light-brown ;
head pale yellowish-brown with four red-brown spots; collar
pale yellowish-brown ; thorax rather broad and roundish,
densely tufted, the central portion with very long upright

NOTODONTIDE. 143

scales, chestnut-red, barred with pale yellow-brown ; shoulder
lappets similar, rather raised; abdomen yellowish-brown,
shading to red-brown behind, with an erect, divided, red-
brown tuft on the back of the basal segment, and smaller,
shorter tufts on the two following ; anal segment with a short
red-brown tuft. Fore wings moderately broad; costa very
slightly curved to the apex, which also is rounded; hind
margin rather curved, but very little oblique; slightly
scalloped; dorsal margin nearly straight, with a tooth-shaped
projecting tuft of blackish scales in the middle. Colour very
pale yellowish-brown from the base, occupying the costal half
to the middle, shading into light red-brown in the dorsal
region, and also through the outer middle portion to the apex ;
hind marginal space mainly occupied by a large ovate whitish
blotch containing faint clouds of pale brownish and a single
black streak on a nervure; principal nervures dark brown,
especially beyond the middle of the wing; usual transverse
lines only faintly visible; the first as a light brown spot on
the costa, and a couple of sharp angles just before the
prominent tuft ; the second as a series of scallops along the
base of the white patch, but bending back to the costa; cilia
white, clouded and dashed with brown, especially at the
tips of the nervures. Hind wings rounded, light red-brown,
paler at the base; at the anal angle is a blackish blotch,
divided transversely by a yellowish line which continues
faintly across the wing; cilia white, clouded and dashed with
light brown. Female a little larger'and stouter, antennz
merely dentated, otherwise quite similar.

Underside pale brownish-drab, the hind wings paler drab ;
both are crossed by two faint, indented, brownish lines or
shades; cilia white, dashed with smoky-black ; body golden-
brown ; legs light brown, barred in front with white, and
having very dense tufts of pale yellow-brown scales.

Not variable except a little in the depth of reddish-brown
colouring.

On the wing from the middle of May to the middle of June,

144 LEPIDOPTERA.

Larva.—Head rounded, notched on the crown; face flat ;
second segment narrow, gradually widening to the sixth,
remainder even, but the thirteenth sharply attenuated to the
anal extremity. On the twelth segment is a prominent
dorsal hump, and a smaller double hump each on the fifth to
the ninth, most conspicuous when the larva is at rest. Head
pale yellowish-brown with a chocolate-brown streak on each
side, and others on the mouth and sides of the lobes. General
colour greyish-white tinged with green ; dorsal line dull dark
green broader from the second to the sixth segment ; subdorsal
lines paler green and bordered outside by a pale yellow stripe;
no perceptible spiracular lines. The hump on the twelfth
segment is dark purplish-brown; second segment with a
collar of black horny spots; segmental divisions yellow;
anterior part of the back dotted with black; spiracles large
and distinct, pinkish surrounded with black; ventral surface
yellowish-green, without markings; legs and prolegs pinkish-
brown. Rests with the front and anal segments raised and
thrown back, in the usual Notodonta attitude. (G .T. Porritt.)

Variable in colour—pale green, pale lilac, pinkish, or yellow-
ish, in each case the broad dorsal stripe on the second to sixth
segment is conspicuously darker, and the skin very glossy.

June and July on maple (Acer campestris), usually upon the
small bushy maples which grow under trees in woods, always
if possible choosing a shady spot. ‘The Rev. Bernard Smith
says that, if exposed to sunlight, the colour of the larva becomes
brighter, but that it will not thrive; also that it always sits
at the edge of the maple leaf. Although this is its favourite
food, sycamore is not refused in confinement.

Pupa rather slender, rounded at both ends, with the anal
seoments smooth, and the whole surface glossy blackish-
brown. In a thin silken cocoon on the ground under dead
leaves, or moss, or among loose soft earth, or even under moss
on a tree trunk, but apparently not at the roots of trees. In
this state through the winter,

NOTODONTIDE. 145

The moth certainly flies at night, and in one instance has
been captured—by Dr. IF. D. Wheeler—attracted by a light.
Otherwise it seems never to be seen upon the wing. More-
over it does not appear ever to be captured when at rest in
the daytime. From its colour, shading, and the prominent
tufts on thorax, abdomen and wings, it must be admirably
adapted for concealment, whether among dead leaves on the
ground or sitting on the rough seamed bark of a maple, but
where it does actually rest in the daytime is, I think, merely
matter of conjecture. The larva is not difficult to find in its
extremely restricted localities, and all the specimens in collec-
tions appear to have been reared. ‘There is a record in a
rather hot season (1857) of the emergence in confinement of
a few specimens in the early part of August, but no other
evidence of its double-broodedness appears to be obtainable
either here or abroad. Always a scarce species and almost
confined to woods in chalk districts. Most frequent in Bucks,
where, more particularly near Marlow, the Rey. Bernard Smith
has for many years collected and reared it, much to the
advantage of our collections; found also in Kent, Sussex,
Devon, Berks, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hssex, very
rarely in Suffolk and Norfolk, and one larva in Gloucester-
shire. ‘This appears to be the extent of its range in these
islands. Abroad it is also scarce, but is found in France,
Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, and Central Russia.

Genus 6. PTEROSTOMA.

Antenne of the male very strongly pectinated; palpi
very large, ascending ; fore wings with two prominent tufts ;
abdomen with a long forked anal tuft. We have but one
species.

1. P. palpina, Z.—Expanse 14 to 2 inches. Pale
brownish-drab with long thick palpi, forked anal tufts, and
two large prominent tufts on the dorsal margin of the fore
wings.

VOL, III, K

146 LEPIDOPTERA.

Antenne moderately long, in the male strongly and regu-
larly pectinated, pale brown, shaft white. Palpi very large,
standing obliquely upwards in front of the head, broadly and
densely clothed with scales and regularly crenulated along
the front edge, whitish drab, almost hiding the rather darker
head ; thorax broad and squared, with large uplifted shoulder
lappets, and the middle portion crested with long upright
scales, brownish-drab; abdomen long and tapering, not:
stout, whitish-drab, having a very long forked anal tuft, and
small tufts on the back of the basal segments. Fore wings
rather long and narrow; costal margin very straight; apex
angulated and rather pointed; hind margin extremely full
and rounded, regularly scalloped throughout, but more
deeply so at the anal angle ; dorsal margin singularly formed,
having a large projecting tooth a short distance from the
anal angle, and a far larger one, edged with projecting scales,
nearer the base. Colour pale buff with numerous blackish
dashes on the nervures, and slender longitudinal brownish
lines and shades between them; in the middle is an oblique
straight cloudy brown stripe from the larger prominent tuft
to the costa beyond the middle; before the larger prominent
tuft a slender curved line indicates the usual first line and
proceeds in dots across the wing; beyond the central stripe a
sort of normal second line, commencing by a dark streak
before the small prominent, is represented by pairs of dots on
the nervures and short shades between them; edging of large
prominent tuft blackish; along the hind margin is a row of
brownish lunules fitting into the marginal scallops; cilia
whitish-buff, interrupted at the ends of the lunules. Hind
wings slightly rounded, acutely so at the apex, whitish-grey,
whiter at the base, with a grey cloud along the hind margin,
preceded by a pale line and a series of dark grey dashes on
nervures ; cilia white.

Female with antennz shortly pectinated, palpi equally long
but narrower ; abdomen much stouter, but with only a short
blunt anal tuft; fore wings longer and broader, more pointed,

NOTODONTIDE. 147

with the hind margin more deeply scalloped ; more uniformly
brownish in colour; otherwise similar.

Underside of fore wings whity-brown clouded with grey ;
costa blackish at the base and spotted with black beyond the
middle, where also is a pale transverse angulated stripe;
hind wings whitish with a black central spot, dark lines on
the nervures, and dark dashes along the hind margin; body
and legs whity-brown.

Not very variable, slightly so in the intensity of the few
dark markings, the oblique stripe being in some cases obsolete
in both sexes. Mr. Harwood of Colchester, however, records
a specimen nearly black.

On the wing in May and June, and as a partial or complete
second generation in July and August.

Larva rather stiff in appearance, nearly cylindrical and
without prominences, tapering a very little from the eighth
segment to the head, which is small, greenish or brownish-
green, and edged with white. Skin rather granulated,
especially on the usual dorsal and subdorsal lines; general
colour pale bluish-green, or whitish-green, whitest on the
back; dorsal line indicated by an edging of dull white on
each side; subdorsal lines whiter, spiracular yellow, some-
times interrupted with white, slightly edged above with black,
and enclosing small lilac or purple spots on the front
segments; legs green; undersurface dark green irrorated
with whitish. This larva has, very conspicuously developed,
a remarkable gland beneath the head, from which it is able
to protrude a forked projection. ‘There is neither time nor
space here to enlarge upon this curious organ; indeed it is
not in my power to do justice to much that is wonderful in
the structure of these creatures, but throat-glands of this
nature, though not usually so strongly developed, exist in the
larvee of a large number of species of the present family, and
in a very great majority of those of the Noctwina.

End of June, July, September, and October on all the

148 LEPIDOPTERA.

species of poplar, and less frequently on willow and sallow ;
feeding on the’ leaves, often with great rapidity, the whole
time from the egg to the pupa state sometimes occupying not
more than three weeks.

Pura stout, cylindrical, shining, a little produced in front;
abdomen tapering, dilated at the end and furnished with a
short curved spike; segments well divided. Colour glossy
purple-brown. In a rather soft ovate cocoon of silk and
earth, often at the roots of trees. The Rey. Joseph Green says:
“Occasionally at poplars, but more frequently at willows,
especially when on the bank of a ditch or stream. The side
of the tree which faces a stream is often clothed with grassy
sods of loose friable earth; this is the place for palpina ;
shake the sod well, and the cocoon will generally be found
among the dry roots. Hnd of September.” It lies in this
condition through the winter, but the pupa hunter is often
forestalled by mouse, beetle, earwig, or Oniscus, if he does not
search in good time.

The moth flies vigorously and in a wild and bewildering
manner at late dusk—occasionally at early dusk—and well
into the night. The male is readily attracted by a strong
light, and was formerly by no means rare at gas-lamps in the
London suburbs ; sometimes even remaining all day on the
lamp frame upon which it had settled on the previous night.
In the daytime it is rarely found, though occasionally it may
be seen sitting on a paling or tree trunk. But it may most
easily be overlooked from its extraordinary resemblance to a
pale twisted leaf, or even more accurately to a bit of broken,
withered, bramble-stick, the prominences and tufts exactly
like thorns, the projecting palpi and forked tail like loose
bits of fibre,and the wings wrapped so closely round the body
as perfectly to complete the mimicry.

Common in the South, Hast, and South-west of England
and in South Wales; less common or even rare in some of
the Midland counties, but probably existing, wherever poplars

NOTODONTIDZA. 149

and willows are common, throughout the country to Cumber-
land. In Scotland, in Roxburghshire, Clydesdale, and other
parts of the south of that country, and, rarely, in suitable
spots, in the Moray district. Very scarce in Ireland, but has
been taken in Wicklow, Kerry, Galway, and Tyrone.
Common in all the temperate parts of Europe, and in Asia
Minor and Tartary. In China and Japan a form is found
of double the size of our specimens, but otherwise agreeing
most accurately, and apparently the same species. It is
known as P. Sinica.

Genus 7. PTILOPHORA.

Antenne of the male with such long slender pectinations
as to be plumose ; fore wings narrow, thinly scaled, dorsal
margin very short. We have only one species.

1. P. plumigera, Hsp.—Expanse 1} inch. Bright light
chestnut, fore wings mottled with yellowish; antenne of
male plumose ; thorax very fluffy.

Antenne of moderate length, in the male furnished with
very long slender filaments, not stiff or firm as in ordinary
pectinations, but lying more loosely together, placed in two
rows in the ordinary manner ; black, shaft shining light brown.
Head strongly tufted, rich chestnut; a small tuft of yellowish
scales at the base of each antenna; thorax not very stout,
covered with long, soft, loose, fluffy scales of a rich light or
dark chestnut colour; abdomen rather slender, glossy, of the
same colour, and with a loose spreading anal tuft. Fore
wings narrow ; costa nearly straight; apex suddenly rounded
off; hind margin long, very oblique, and much curved so as
to sweep round the anal angle and dorsal margin—which is
very short, not more than one half the length of the costa,
and curved to near the base; a short loose triangular mar-
ginal mass of scales forms a sort of prominent tuft, which lies
much nearer the base of the dorsal margin than usual. Very
thinly scaled and semi-transparent; pale chestnut with the

150 LEPIDOPTERA.

nervures dark red-brown ; first line rather curved and com-
posed of a series of yellowish clouds; second line similarly
composed, arising on the middle of the dorsal margin, making
a wide sweep outward and a bold curve back to the costa;
beyond this is a sub-marginal row of more obscure yellowish
clouds; cilia dark brown regularly interrupted with yellowish.
Hind wings rather pointed, but smoothly rounded behind,
semi-transparent, purplish-white or reddish-white ; cilia pale
reddish dashed with brown at each nervure. Female with
antennee shorter and threadlike, yet finely toothed ; abdomen
stouter; thorax and fore wings alike darker red brown,
almost purple brown, the latter much more uniform in colour
and rather more thickly covered with scales; first line hardly
perceptible ; second indistinct except toward the costa, where
is a yellow spot; hinder area rather more tinged with
purplish ; hind wings purplish-grey.

Underside of all the wings very thinly covered with pur-
plish scales, except the margins, which are rufous dusted with
whitish ; body and legs chestnut-red.

Slightly variable in depth of colour of the fore wings, some
males having these much suffused with ochreous, others being
rather dark or unicolorous, like the female; on the other
hand, some females are as pale as ordinary males.

On the wing in November, principally in the middle of the
month, but occasionally emerging at the end of October.

Larva plump, cylindrical, only slightly thicker in the
middle; head rounded, rather small, yellowish-green ;
body polished and opaque, pale, delicate, whitish blue-
green, with a very broad deep green dorsal stripe occupying all
the space to the extremely narrow yellowish subdorsal lines ;
spiracular line double, slender, wavy, white; undersurface,
legs and prolegs, glossy pale green. When about to spin up
it changes to a uniform semi-transparent green, like the
undersurface of a maple leaf. Whennewly hatched very pale
greenish ochreous, with long silky curved whitish hairs;

NOTODONTIDZ. 51

exactly resembling the enveloping sheath of the maple bud.
As the buds open the larva casts a skin, loses most of its long
hairs, and becomes yellowish-green, gradually approaching to
the adult colouring. Varieties occur having two transverse
bars of white on the twelfth segment, and one on the thir-
teenth. (Condensed from Buckler.)

May and the beginning of June, on maple ; but in confine-
ment will also eat sycamore and Norway maple. It usually
reposes in a curved posture on the underside of a leaf, and
appears to be of a social disposition, since two will sometimes
repose under the same leaf. The Rev. Bernard Smith, to
whom we are indebted for much of our knowledge of this
species, says that it prefers maple bushes in hedges which are
open and not shaded by trees, and selects the sunny side. He
says, moreover, that the eggs may be found, in the winter and
spring, on the slender twigs, often two or three near together,
and usually near a bud. The eggs when found must be kept
in a cool place, and will probably hatch before the end of
April, contrary to their habit out of doors. The young larva
is very helpless and often fails to find its food—should be
lifted on to it with a feather. It is always delicate, and of a
quiet, sluggish habit. The curious throat gland already
mentioned is well developed in this species.

Pura rather slender, with the abdomen tapering; skin
thin, polished; purplish-brown. In a thin brittle earthen
cocoon, broadly ovate and placed upright, the pupa being
fixed by the anal hooks and hanging free. Not at the foot of
a tree, but doubtless under the bushes and often at a depth of
two or three inches in soft sandy soil.

The moth flies at night, and the male is readily attracted to
light in its very restricted localities. It has apparently a
fondness for foggy, mild weather, but is very rarely obtained
on the wing. Neither is it readily found when at rest in the
daytime, and we know little of its habits in this respect—.
though it must surely sit upon the branches or twigs of

152 LEPIDOPTERA.

maple. The vast majority—indeed nearly all—the specimens
in our collections are reared. Apparently almost wholly
confined to chalk districts, and in them very local ; found in
the greatest numbers with us in Buckinghamshire, Berks, and
Oxfordshire ; more rarely in Kent, Hants, Gloucestershire,
and South Devon ; and is said to have occurred once or twice
in Cambridgeshire. There is no apparent reason to believe
that it inhabits any portion of these islands north or west of
the localities named.

Abroad it is found over the greater portion of Central
Europe, and in Livonia and Siberia ; indeed, probably over
a far wider range, since accurately typical specimens have
been brought from Japan. It is a strongly marked and in
structure rather singular species, and appears to have no
close allies, so far as is known, in the world.

Genus 8. GLUPHISIA.

Antenne stronely pectinated in the male, very shortly so
in the female; fore wings short, ovate, rather broad, hind
margin slightly crenulated. We have but one species.

1. G. crenata, Hsp.—Expanse 11 inch. Fore wings
short and broad, dark grey mixed with brown, with four
whitish transverse stripes; hind wings grey, paler at the
base.

Antenne of the male short, rather broadly pectinated with
solid ciliated teeth; blackish-brown. Head tufted, pale
grey ; tho.ax densely covered with partially erect scales, pale
erey, darker grey in front and at the sides; abdomen stout,
short, brown, with a short dense anal tuft. Fore wings very
ovate ; costa regularly curved; apex bluntly rounded ; hind
marein slightly crenulated, rather straight and but little
oblique, rounded off at the anal angle; dorsal margin
decidedly rounded but not tufted. Colour dark grey, with
the hind marginal region whitish-grey ; near the base is an

NOTODONTID. 153

indistinct, broken, black, transverse line, edged outwardly
with whitish; beyond this the usual first line is nearly
straight and almost perpendicular, black, edged inside, rather
broadly, with white; second line oblique, angulated above
the dorsal margin, and sharply toothed close to the costa,
otherwise rather curved, edged outside with whitish ; beyond
this, in the broad pale hind-marginal band is a slender much-
indented black line parallel with the hind margin, this also is
edged, internally, with whitish ; between the first and second
lines the nervures are sharply black, regularly dividing a
faint yellowish transverse band which precedes the second
line ; discal spot white edged with black; cilia pale grey,
dashed with darker. Hind wings short, rounded, slightly
crenulated at the margin ; pale grey, darker toward the hind
margin, with a still darker cloud, from the anal angle, across
the middle, and two white streaks at the anal angle. An-
tennze of the female very shortly but distinctly pectinated ;
otherwise similar.

Underside of the fore wings smoky-brown, with the hind
margin paler, and before it a darker smoky-brown band
preceded on the costa by a whitish spot; hind wings paler
smoky-brown, with a still paler indistinct cross stripe; cilia
of all the wings whitish, regularly spotted with dark brown
or black.

On the wing in June—that is to say, the British specimens
appear to have occurred in this month. On the Continent
the species is found in April and June or July in two
generations.

Larva cylindrical and very even in thickness; head pale
green, body rather light green with a slender whitish dorsal
line ; pairs of dark-red or rusty-brown spots on the back of
the third and fourth, seventh to the eleventh, and thirteenth
segments; subdorsal lines pale yellow, rather broad and
distinct ; spiracular line yellowish, only visible on the anterior
segments ; spiracles blackish ; legs and prolegs green, as also

154 LEPIDOPTERA.

is the undersurface. When younger, of a rather yellower
green. (Condensed from Buckler.)

August and September on poplar. On the Continent, also
in May and June.

Pura rather short and thick, rounded, with the limb-
cases well developed, undersurface a little flattened, tail
blunt ; shining brownish-black. In an ovate silken cocoon
of a semi-transparent drab colour, between two poplar leaves.
In this condition through the winter. (Buckler.)

Only three specimens of this species are known to have
occurred in these islands. The first was taken on the trunk
of a poplar in Ongar Park Wood, Essex, in June 1839, and
the second in the same place in June 1841. Both are females,
and are in the collection of the late Mr. H. Doubleday, now
in Bethnal Green Museum. Of the remaining specimen,
which is in his collection, the Rev. Joseph Greene writes :
“In 1853 I was residing at Halton, Bucks. On the 18th
August of that year, returning home past a large black
poplar, I gave a branch a blow with my stick, and a
caterpillar fell into the grass. It was of a dull green and
with square brick-red dorsal spots. I placed it in a box with
moss and it went down at once. In the same month I left
Halton for Dublin. Before doing so I went to the rooms of
the Entomological Society, and consulted Hiibner. In one
of his plates I found that my larva was crenata. I carried
the box containing the pupa, and those of other rarities, in
my lap, to Dublin, where I placed it in a greenhouse. One
day in the following March I found in it a small dull-
coloured moth just emerged. It was crenata. I sent it for
exhibition to the Entomological Society in 1854.” That
casual specimens should thus appear at long intervals is most
perplexing.

Abroad it is found in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany,
Piedmont, and Central Russia. I do not see any sufficient

NOTODONTIDZA. 155

character to separate specimens from Canada and the
Hudson’s Bay Territory, which, however, are known as
septentrionalis, Walker.

Genus 9. PETASIA.

Antenne rather long, pectinated in the males, serrated in
the females; fore wings elongated, having in the middle
of the dorsal margin a slightly projecting tuft of scales ;

a distinct black horny spur is conspicuous on the front of the
anterior legs.

Larv# cylindrical, very stout, holding both extremities
thrown up when at rest. *

Pup& subterranean.

1. P. cassinea, Schiff.; Asteroscopus sphinx, Staud.
Cat.—Expanse 14 to 13 inch. Fore wings greyish-white or
pale drab, with numerous short black longitudinal streaks ;
hind wings white, with grey dashes.

Antennz rather more than one half as long as the fore
wings, in the male strongly pectinated throughout with solid
curved teeth, reddish-brown, back of the shaft white. Head,
with the palpi densely tufted with long projecting brownish
and whitish scales; with white tufts at the bases of the
antenne. Thorax broad and squared, with extremely large
and long shoulder-lappets, which are white in the middle,
with a black streak on each side, and the front and hind
margins tinged with brown; collar similarly brownish divided
by a white patch, edged with black ; remainder of the thorax
brownish. Abdomen rather tapering, densely covered with
pale brown scales; anal tuft divided, pale brown. Tore
wings rather triangular; costa straight almost to the apex,
which is blunt; hind margin gently rounded off to the dorsal
margin, which is straight. White, faintly tinged with brown
or grey, or both, in separate longitudinal shades; no trace
of transverse lines, the only markings being longitudinal

156 LEPIDOPTERA.

black streaks, of which a long one from the base reaches
one-third the length of the wing; other shorter ones are
numerous, partially upon portions of the nervures ; others,
more irregular, are along the dorsal region; and one, more
distinct, on the dorsal margin, having an edging of blackish
projecting scales as a sort of prominent tuft; toward the
hind margin is a series of black triangular dashes between
nervures, pointing inward toward other more arrow-shaped
streaks; along the costa is a succession of blackish clouds
and streaks; cilia mixed grey and white. Hind wings white
with a faint indication of a grey lunule, a series of grey
dashes on nervures beyond the middle of the wings, and a
marginal series of grey lunules ; cilia whitish.

Antenne of the female threadlike ; body much stouter ;
fore wings longer, narrower, and rather browner; otherwise
similar.

Underside of the forewings unicolorous light brown, or of
that colour one half their length, the remainder whitish with
brown nervures; hind wings white with brown nervures and
a grey central lunule; body pale brownish; legs brown,
densely tufted with long whitish scales; the first pair having
in front a distinct shining black spur.

Usually not variable,but Dr. Mason has a male extremely
white with the grey clouds and black streaks strongly
marked ; hind wings brilliantly white, and the margin dotted
with black.

On the wing in November and the beginning of December.

Larva stout, nearly cylindrical, head rather smaller, twelfth
segment stout, having a slight appearance of a dorsal hump ;
anal segment sloped rapidly off; prolegs all well developed
and in use; all the legs stretched out very widely apart,
especially when beaten off its food (hence its common
English name of the ‘‘Sprawler”). Head round, green or
olive-green ; body yellowish-green or whitish-green; dorsal
line yellowish-white, with a deep green stripe on each side ;

NOTODONTIDZ. 157

subdorsal or spiracular lines slender and threadlike, white or
greenish-white ; the latter double, or -edged above with a
dark brown line; second segment with a yellowish-white
collar ; spiracles whitish in black rings; legs pink; prolegs
pale green tipped or spotted with pink.

May and June on oak, hazel, sallow, ash, elm, lime, beech,
poplar, and aspen. Probably the eggs, which are curiously
shaped and have been compared to a butter-boat, and which
have been laid through the winter, hatch by the end of April.
The larve, when young especially, bear a shocking character
as cannibals, and being, moreover, extremely delicate in con-
stitution, are very difficult to rear; any degree of close con-
finement is fatal; they should have plenty of fresh air and be
fed up singly. When, according to their strange habit, their

extremities are thrown up, and all the legs extended, they are
curious-looking creatures.

Pupa stout, dark brown, in a cocoon of earth and silk,
usually deep in the ground, rarely at the roots of trees.

The moth flies only late at night, and the male may often
be attracted by a strong light at about 11 p.m. It has been
taken even at a carriage lamp. In the daytime it is said to
sit upon old posts or railings, and is very hard to see, from
its close resemblance to a bit of decayed wood, or to the grey-
ish-brown lichens. Its extended and tufted feet, and rough
scales at the edge of the fore wings, all help to complete the
deception.

Formerly found in the London suburbs—as at Clapham
Common ; still to be found as near as Twickenham ; also more
or less frequently in Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Berks, Bucks
(rather commonly), Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire,
Oxfordshire, Hereford, Essex, and Suffolk, and widely dis-
tributed in Norfolk, Cambs, and Hunts; rare and local in

Yorkshire and Cumberland, and recorded in single instances

from Cheshire and Lancashire. I know of no other localities

in these islands, Abroad it is not very widely distributed,

158 LEPIDOPTERA.

but is found throughout Central Europe, and in Piedmont
and Sweden.

2. P.nubeculosa, Hsp.; Asteroscopus nubeculosus
Staud. Cat.—Expanse 1 to 2 inches. Thorax densely furry ;
fore wings dark grey or reddish-grey, with black streaks and
nervures, and a large pale discal spot; hind wings pale grey
with brown-dotted margin.

Antenne rather long, pectinated in the male with short,
stout, knobbed teeth, the rows placed widely apart and almost
opposite ; dark brown, back of shaft silvery white; face pale
grey ; head dark grey, scales erect ; thorax broad and squared,
densely covered with fur-like, long, raised scales, mixed black
and grey; the shoulder lappets uplifted and very large.
Abdomen rather tapering, covered with downy red-brown or
grey scales, which form a broad ridge down each side, and a
rather flat anal tuft. Fore wings long, with the costa very
gently curved, apex rounded; hind margin oblique, very
gently rounded ; dorsal margin long, rather curved, fringed
before the middle with long projecting scales. Ground
colour reddish-white or greyish-white, greatly obscured with
smoky black clouding and black markings; base cloudy,
brown and blackish; first line black, but only as a succession
of small clouds, blackest on the nervures; across this runs a
long black streak from the base, which bends back and forms
a long tooth-shaped marking below the median nervure ;
second line far beyond the middle, thick, curved, black, much
indented and broken, edged with whitish ; between these
lines the nervures are black, there is also much black clouding,
and on the outside edge of the discal cell a large rhomboidal
or kidney-shaped whitish spot, encircled with black; a small
rounder spot in a black ring lying just before it; beyond the
second line is a deep black costal blotch before the apex, and
from it a series of black cloudy blotches parallel with the
hind margin and massing into a considerable blotch within
the anal angle; along the hind margin is a series of black

NOTODONTID &. 159

triangular spots or arrow-heads pointing inward between the
nervures ; cilia white, very short. Hind wings pale grey,
with the costal margin grey-brown; nervures dark brown ;
a large cloudy grey central lunule; and the hind margin
spotted with dark brown; cilia white. Antenne of the
female threadlike; body stouter, less downy, fore wings
usually more suffused with black; otherwise similar. .

Underside of the fore wings dark reddish-grey, or smoky-
grey to the second line; beyond this, whitish with dark grey
clouds; central spot blackish; hind margin spotted with
black. Hind wings whitish with dark grey nervures, the
central spot large, ovate, black; marginal spots rather large
and black; body dark golden brown densely covered with
fur-like scales ; legs grey with the large tufts brownish.

Variation is in intensity of dark colouring and extent of
black clouding around the markings ; and also, to some extent,
in ground colour, from warm reddish-white to pale dull greyish-
white. Dr. F. D. Wheeler states that larvee fed up from the
egg upon apple leaves in confinement are devoid of the rich
reddish tinge which is so frequently seen in captured speci-
mens. This almost seems to indicate an effect of colour
produced by food, since the same result is certainly not
ordinarily obtained by the use of other food-plants.

On the wing at the end of March and in April.

Larva.—Head rounded, rather small ; body plump, with the
incisions strongly marked ; cylindrical, except that the twelfth
segment is raised into a blunt ridge or hump; behind this
the thirteenth tapers off in a long curved slope; legs and
prolegs stout and well developed, but much spread abroad,
the anterior and posterior extremities both raised and thrown
back toward each other in repose until the head almost
touches the dorsal hump. Head pale bluish-green; body
delicate green, whiter on'the back, bright yellowish-green on
the sides and beneath ; the usual dots slightly prominent and
large, pale yellow; spiracles white edged with black; on

160 LEPIDOPTERA.

each side of the fourth segment is a short, distinct, oblique,
bright yellow stripe edged with reddish; one much more
obscure on each side of the third; hinder edge of the dorsal
hump sharply outlined with yellow ; anal segment edged with
yellow, and with a distinct yellow stripe along each side,
meeting behind. Legs pink; prolegs green, with a black
ring on the outer side; and brown hooks to the feet. When
quite young the raised spots are very large and black, each
furnished with a black bristle, but as the larva grows the
tubercular spots do not increase proportionately in size, and
the colour gradually changes. The young larva does not
assume the extraordinary attitude of rest already described
in the adult. (Condensed from Buckler.)

End of May and June on birch; but on the Continent
found also on elm, hornbeam, blackthorn, and plum. In
confinement it will eat apple, pear, Guelder-rose, buckthorn,
honeysuckle, or sallow, if supplied with those plants from the
time of hatching.

This larva with us is tender and rather difficult to rear,
also liable to diarrhoea. Mr. W. H. Tugwell found that when
in this state, and very dirty, with no apparent prospect of
recovery, by washing them in cold water and thoroughly
cleansing them with a camel’s-hair brush, the disease was
removed and he was able to rear them.

Pura rounded, with short wing-covers, but the antenna-
cases well developed; abdominal segments deeply divided
and rather tapering; covered with a faint whitish bloom. In
a cocoon of silk and earth, occasionally under moss on the
surface of the ground, but usually at a depth of several
inches. In this condition through the winter, but in confine-
ment almost always found to remain in pupa two winters and

occasionally more.
The moth doubtless flies at night, but has not, epparently

with us been observed upon the wing. ‘The only method of
capture, so far as I am aware, is by searching the trunks of

NOTODONTIDA. 161

the birch trees in the daytime in its extremely restricted
locality, in the early spring, often before the snow is off the
ground, and so securing it soon after emergence. It sits
close in one of the open gashes with which all old birch trees
are so plentifully ornamented, and is much protected by its
great resemblance to the rough dark bark. If the weather is
very cold it will hide in the deepest crannies close to the
ground.

So far as I know its only locality in these Islands is the
extensive range of birch woods around Loch Rannoch, Perth-
shire, but it is hard to understand why it should not be found
in all open woods of moderately old birches in the Highlands
of Scotland. The first British specimen seems to have been
taken by Mr. Cooper in the year 1854. The next year
another was found, and from that time to the present a good
number of specimens have been taken, mainly by professional
collectors, but by no means in regular numbers from year to
year. Abroad it is found in Northern France, Germany,
Galicia, Livonia, and the Ural Mountain district.

Genus 10. PYGZERA.

Antenne about one-half the length of the fore wings,
pectinated in the male to at least three-fourths of their
length, but not with solid teeth, only with, as in the
Sphingidee, horse-shoe shaped tufts of long curved bristles
which closely imitate the usual teeth; thorax strongly

crested ; fore wings long and ample, with the hind margin
regularly toothed.

We have only one species.

1. P. bucephala. Z.—Expanse 2 to 24 inches. Fore

wings silvery grey-brown, with a very large round creamy
blotch toward the apex.

' Antenne of the male stout, pectinated, but only with
tufts of strong curved bristles, placed in horse-shoe form,
L

162 LEPIDOPTERA.

and curving toward each other so that an appearance as of
solid teeth is produced; the rows placed nearly on opposite
sides and standing well apart; light chestnut-brown. Palpi
covered with long curling red-brown scales; head strongly
tufted with raised yellow scales, a longer tuft at the base
of each antenna. ‘Thorax broad, squared, densely covered
with upright scales, and beautifully ornamented, the middle
portion being of arich creamy yellow, with a chocolate-red spot
in the middle, and edged at the back by two chocolate-red bars
which are divided with silvery-white, these two bars being
so raised as to form a crest; behind them is a patch of
silvery-grey ; shoulder lappets large, each having at its base
two chocolate-red cross bars divided by rich yellow;
remainder of the lappets silvery-white. Abdomen long and
stout, thickly covered with long creamy-yellow scales, and
with a black interrupted stripe down each side; anal tuft
broad and squared, creamy-yellow ; lateral tufts of the same
colour forming regular ridges. Fore wings long and ample,
broad beyond the middle ; costa almost straight to near the
apex, then forming a smooth curve round the apex and hind
margin, which last is not very oblique; dorsal margin almost
straight. Ground colour apparently purplish-brown, most
visible on the costal region; but much concealed, especially
on the basal and dorsal regions, by silvery-white scales
placed in transverse ripples; first line rather near the base,
almost straight, perpendicular, double, purple-black ; second
line also donble, purple-black, lying far beyond the middle,
curved and scalloped,—the hollows outward,—bending
suddenly back close to the costa. In a great concave formed
by the upper half of this second line, and filling the whole
space to the apex, is a very large, round, or ovate, creamy-
yellow blotch containing two rows of darker yellow clouds or
cloudy spots; at the end of the discal cell is usually a dark
grey streak or cloudy spot, sometimes lying in a creamy-
yellow spot or blotch, which, however, is not always per-
ceptible ; often there is also a triangular creamy, or whitish,

NOTODONTID. 163

cloud at the anal angle, and a faint indication of a yellowish
blotch at the base of the dorsal margin; hind margin edged
with a thick black line, broken at the tip of each nervure,
and often forming slight scallops, or lunules; cilia yellow,
edged with bright red-brown and toothed by purple-brown
projections at the nervure-tips. Hind wings rather ample,
much rounded, furnished with very long silky scales at the
base; pale yellow, usually with faint indications of two
parallel greyish cloudy stripes half-way across the wings from
above the anal angle; but in some specimens these are
hardly perceptible, in others extended further across the
middle of the wing and broadened into a smoky cloud; cilia
yellow, faintly dotted with chocolate-red. Female larger and
stouter, with the antennz stout, and furnished with pairs
of bristles in rows, otherwise similar.
’ Underside of all the wings creamy yellowish-white, each
with an undulating transverse narrow chocolate stripe,
crossing the middle of the hind wings, bent beyond the
middle and oblique in the fore wings; hind margin of the
fore wings edged and rippled with chocolate, and having
similar lines and spots in the yellow cilia; body pale yellow;
legs purple-brown barred with yellow, and furnished with
large tufts of scales, purple in front, yellow behind.
Variation in this species is usually in the degree and
extent of the silvery-white shining scales over the fore wings
and the degree of rippling over the darker under-colour. In
some specimens this is almost confined to the base, in others
it extends to all the dark portions of the wings, and every
possible intermediate degree occurs; but the most extensively
and beautifully rippled specimens seem to be obtained in
Lancashire. In the collection of Mr. W. G. Blatch is a female
specimen, reared in Warwickshire, in which the silvery-white
colour is intensified to shining snowy-white, which extends
over a large portion of the fore wings; while the first and
second lines, in striking contrast, are strongly marked and
of a rich red-brown. In Yorkshire a very different form is

164 LEPIDOPTERA.

occasionally found, which, though rare, appears to exist as a
recurrent variety ; it is devoid of the white scales, even the
base of the fore wings being very dark; and having more
than the basal half of the hind wings occupied by a smoky-
brown cloud. Another phase of variation has incidentally
been pointed out above, in the presence or absence of a yellow
discal spot and a yellow or white blotch at the anal angle.
On the wing in June and July.

Larva rather soft and limp; long, cylindrical, with the
head larger, but no humps. Head round, black, with the
lobes outlined in yellow; body downy, from a covering of
small whitish hairs; yellow, clouded with grey on the back of
each segment, or when quite full grown of a more greenish
yellow; dorsal stripe rather broad, dull black, interrupted
at each segmental division; subdorsal line grey, slender;
beneath it two similar lines, all three interrupted in the same
manner; spiracles black ; legs black or greyish-black ; prolegs
blackish. Larger whitish hairs project over the head.

August and September on elm, lime, willow, sallow, oak,
birch, beech, alder, sycamore. It has been found even on
laurel and on Tropwolwm majus, and is far from "particular in
its choice of food, though in the suburbs of London, where it
is abundant, lime appears to be chiefly selected. The eggs
are deposited in clusters and the young larvae remain together
in companies, feeding side by side so as to clear leaf after leaf,
and render their presence conspicuous by stripping the por-
tion of a branch on which they reside. When, however, the
higher portion of the branch is cleared the whole company
suddenly leaves it and takes possession of another branch,
usually high up the tree, stripping it in a similar manner.
Each company seems to shift its position in this manner
three times at least. When not feeding, the larvae crowd
together into a solid bunch on one of the twigs, their ex-
tremities protruding from the cluster and giving it a ragged
look very like a leaf which has been eaten, leaving the

NOTODONTIDE. 165

principal ribs, so that the bunch is not at all conspicuous.
When about to cast their skins, a common silken carpet is
constructed by them conjointly, and so little are they incon-
venienced by close proximity that Mr. Stainton has seen one
moulting while two others were lying across its back. When
nearly full fed the companies break up and each larva takes
its own course—and as this is, not uncommonly, across a
frequented path, the result is often disastrous.

Pura thickish in the middle, rounded in front, abdominal
segments tapering, deeply divided, the last with two con-
spicuous black points in a sunken scutcheon; shining dark
purplish-red. Placed just beneath the surface of any soft
loose earth, often close to the roots of a tree, but not in any
cocoon. In this condition through the winter.

A curious instance of vegetable parasitism upon this pupa has
been met with by Mr. E. W. Lifton, near Gloucester. The
pupa was at a depth of about two inches in the ground beneath
some moss, and from it were growing three upright spikes
of a fungus—Cordiceps militaris—just visible above the moss.

The moth flies tolerably swiftly at night but is rarely taken
on the wing, probably from keeping about the higher
branches of trees. In the daytime it sits about on the
ground or on a stone or very frequently upon grass under
trees, with wings folded closely down and almost rolled into a
cylinder. In this state its resemblance to a broken bit of
rotten wood is marvellous, both the yellow tufted thorax, and
the large yellow blotch on the hinder part of the wing,
looking exactly like the ends of a clean broken stick, or else
a patch of yellow lichen, while the general colour of the wings
singularly imitates smooth bark.

Very abundant in the London district, and in many other
parts of the South of England, and, at rare intervals, increasing
in numbers to such a degree that the larvee strip the trees of
their leaves. Fairly common in some seasons all over
England and Wales except the hill districts of the Midlands

166 LEPIDOPTERA.

and the North, but very uncertain, and irregular. In
Scotland it seems to be more local, yet found throughout
the south; rather common in Clydesdale, and at one time
abundant at Moncrieff Hill, Perth; elsewhere found
occasionally, and locally, almost to Sutherlandshire. Found
more commonly in most parts of Ireland. Abroad it is
plentiful all over Europe except in the extreme North and
South, also in the Balkan Provinces, Syria and other parts of
Asia Minor, Southern Russia and Siberia. In the South of
Europe a form is met with in which the yellow discal spot is
enlarged to a conspicuous blotch; the pale spot at the anal
angle also large and yellow, and the hind wings unusually
white. It is called bucephaloides, but appears to have no
sufficient distinguishing character.

Genus 11. CLOSTERA.

Antenne of the males strongly pectinated with long solid
ciliated teeth to the tips; rather curved inward. Head
small and retracted, thorax strongly crested; abdomen
suddenly narrowed at the tail and having a forked anal tuft ;
fore wings rather triangular, broad behind.

This is a compact genus of a few closely allied species, and
apparently not nearly related to any other.

Larva rather stout, living between united leaves on trees
or shrubs.

Pura in the larval habitation, or among dead leaves.

1. C. curtula, /.—Expanse 1} to 14 inch. Fore wings
reddish-grey with four slender white cross lines and a large
chocolate red blotch at the tip; thorax strongly crested.

Antenne regularly pectinated with rather short teeth
which are delicately ciliated; head rich chocolate-red except
a tuft of short whitish scales at the base of each antenna;
thorax rather stout, pale reddish-grey, with a large central
blotch, broadest in front, of long upright scales of a brilhant

NOTODONTIDE. 167

chocolate-red, forming a conspicuous crest; abdomen long,
pale reddish-brown, with a long, compact, narrow anal tuft
of the same colour, forked, and tipped with chocolate. Fore
wings narrow at the base, broad behind ; costa at first arched,
then straight almost to the tip; apex rounded, hind margin
nearly straight to near the anal angle, and not very oblique ;
dorsal margin gracefully curved; pale reddish-grey, or very
pale reddish-brown ; at a short distance from the base is a
slightly oblique, straight, white, transverse line, edged out-
side with light brown; before the middle of the wing is
another, similar, and nearly parallel; beyond the middle a
third, more broadly white on the costa and concave to the
middle, thence straight to the dorsal margin; between the
second and third are indications of another line in two
separate similar streaks, almost end to end, but neither
attaining the margin of the wing. From the concave of the
third line the large apical space is wholly occupied by a
brilliant chocolate-red blotch, shading into greyer toward the
hind margin, and having within it a perpendicular row
of cloudy-grey streaks or spots; the lower edge of the
chocolate blotch curves outward, and nearly attains the anal
angle; cilia light brown. Hind wings pale reddish-brown,
paler at the base; cilia whitish. Antenne of the female
very shortly pectinated; abdomen much stouter; hind wings
uniformly pale reddish-brown ; otherwise similar.

Underside of the fore wings dull brown, with a whitish
spot on the costa beyond the middle, and beyond it the
apical chocolate blotch, paler and more dull than above,
hind wings whitish with a faint brown central transverse
line; body whitish-brown: first pair of legs tinged with
chocolate-red in front, remainder greyish.

Variation in this species is mainly seasonal. ‘There are
two and sometimes three generations in the year, each
usually of a different ground colour; the first is pale grey, or
pale yellowish-grey, with the chocolate blotch dark, and
tinged with purplish; the second reddish-drab, or reddish-

168 LEPIDOPTERA.

brown, with the blotch of deeper colour; the third pale drab
dusted with darker atoms, and with the chocolate blotch
paler toward the apex. A most beautiful variety m the
collection of Mr. Sydney Webb is blackish-brown tinged
with reddish, having the three transverse lines very distinctly
yellowish-white, and the blotch of a deep mahogany colour.
Mr. A. B. Farn has a gynandrous example—the right side
male, the left female.

On the wing at the end of April and in May, July or

August, and sometimes in a third generation in September
or October.

Larva.—Head rounded ; body nearly cylindrical but a little
flattened and the segments rather deeply divided; on the
back of the fourth and twelfth segments is a slightly raised,
round, blackish-brown knob, or tubercle; body covered with
slender bristles or hairs, in loose open tufts arising from
yellowish or orange spots on the sides. Head brown or
blackish, body pale grey dotted with black, with a very broad
wavy dorsal stripe composed of four narrow parallel lines:
spiracular stripe also very broad, consisting of a row of large
yellow spots in which are pairs of orange warts; legs black ;
under-surface and prolegs smoky-grey.

June, July, August, September, sometimes November, on
aspen, poplar, willow, and sallow, drawing together two
leaves with silk into a habitation in which it lives; coming
out at night to feed, clearing off all the leaves close to its
habitation before it will remove and form a fresh one; feeding
up very rapidly, and appearing in two or three generations.

Pura reddish-brown, said to resemble that of Callimorpha
donvinula, though smaller. In a silken cocoon in the larval
habitation, the leaves spun very tightly together while upon
the tree, and, in the late brood, falling with them to the
ground. In this condition through the winter.

The moth flies at night, and is very rarely captured on the

NOTODONTIDE. 169

wing. In the daytime it may occasionally be found sitting
on the trunk of an aspen, and when captured feigns death,
but very soon becomes violent if enclosed in a box, in which
case its wings are quickly broken and the specimen spoiled.
The vast majority of those in collections are reared, the
method of feeding of the larva making it tolerably conspi-
cuous and easy to find.

Formerly considered a rather common species, but now
extremely local and far from plentiful. Probably more fre-
quent in Kent than anywhere else; also found in several
places in Sussex and in the Isle of Wight. Very local in
Berks, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire ; more
rarely found in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Hereford-
shire, Leicestershire, Yorkshire, and even Cumberland, which
seems to be its northern limit. I know of no records of its
occurrence in Wales or the extreme West of England, and
the late Mr. Birchall’s record at Clonmel, Ireland, is not
confirmed, and seems to have been a mistake. Abroad it is
found throughout Central Europe, Northern Europe (except
the coldest portions), in Piedmont, Corsica, Bulgaria, and
Asia Minor.

2. C. anachoreta, /ub.—Expanse 11 to 1} inch. Fore
wings smoky-grey or reddish-grey, with a triangular smoky-
red apical blotch and two black spots beneath it; thorax
with a small crest.

Antenne of the male strongly pectinated, teeth blackish,
shaft brown; head densely tufted, pale grey-brown, with a
large blackish-brown spot on the crown extending back over
the collar, and sometimes quite back over the middle of the
thorax, in a narrow bar of long upright scales; thorax on
each side of this also covered with long grey scales, and
having at the back an erect pointed crest; abdomen long,
moderately stout but tapering, grey or grey-brown, with a
large constricted but spreading and forked anal tuft, which is
darker at the tips. Fore Wings narrow at the base, broad

170 LEPIDOPTERA.

behind; costa arched at the base, then straight; apex sud-
denly rounded ; hind margin rounded and very full at the
anal angle, not very oblique ; dorsal margin almost straight.
Colour pale reddish-grey or smoky-grey, with two indistinct,
nearly straight, parallel whitish lines, edged with dark grey
before the middle, as in the last species; but rather oblique,
leaning inward toward the costa. In the middle of the wing
is one-half of a similar line from the median nervure to the
dorsal margin. From the end of the discal cell the space to
the apex is occupied by a large dark blotch of greyish-choco-
late, changing to smoky-grey in its hinder area; the lower
edge of this blotch hollowed, but curving downward as it
approaches the hind margin. In this large blotch, cutting
it near its origin, is a slender, interrupted, undulating white
stripe, continued across the rest of the wing as the faintest
possible whitish thread, and evidently recognisable as a
normal second line. Outside the white stripe are two black
spots on the apical blotch, and below it an elongated black
spot placed transversely to the wing, followed by a smaller
spot ; hind margin edged with black dashes; cilia smoky-
grey. Hind wings smoky-brown or smoky-grey ; nervures
slightly darker. Antennze of the female very shortly pecti-
nated ; body stouter; otherwise similar.

Underside of the fore wings dull grey or brown, with a
slightly indicated whitish transverse line beyond the middle ;
hind wings brownish-white or pale grey, with a slender brown
transverse stripe and brownish nervures ; body and legs dull
brown or grey.

Only variable in depth of colour.

On the wing in May, in a second generation in July, and
in confinement a third has been obtained in September.

Larva.—Head rather narrow, with the lobes pointed in
front ; body even in thickness, flattened beneath. On the
back of the fifth segment is a large and conspicuous knob
or tubercle, rounded above, dull pink or red-brown, sur-

NOTODONTIDE. 171

rounded with black, and having on each side of it a large
bright white spot; on the twelfth segment another similar
tubercle, also dull red, edged at the back -with whitish.
Head black, shining, rather hairy; body smoky grey or
purplish-black ; dorsal stripe very broad, pale buff or whitish-
grey; immediately below it on each side is a row of large
deep black spots, and intermediately below them a row of
dull orange spots. Spiracular line orange-yellow ; spiracles
orange, legs black ; prolegs smoky-pink.

May, June, July, August, and sometimes September and
October on poplar and sallow; when young living grega-
riously, but when older drawing together leaves of the food-
plant with silk, and living alone in the chamber thus formed.

Pura rather plump, blackish. In the larval chamber or
spun up among leaves. In this state through the winter.

The moth flies only at night, but so far as I am aware has
never been captured—as a moth—in these islands, except
that two are said to have been picked up in the street at
Deal. Yet it seems to have been known here from a very
early date. Haworth, very early in the century, correctly
described it, saying that it was most rare in England. Curtis
(1838) says,.“ the only specimens I have seen are in the
cabinet of the British Museum ; they were taken near Salis-
bury by the late Mr. Spratt.” In the very old British
Museum collection, now at South Kensington, still exist two
specimens which are believed to have been obtained from
Mr. Spratt by Dr. Leech, and presented by him to the
National collection. These specimens appear to be referred
to, also, by Stephens and Westwood. Apparently the
species was lost for at least thirty years, but in 1858 two
larvee were obtained near Saltwood, Kent, in June, by Mr.
Sidney Cooper, and reared, but were not at the time recog-
nised. In the following year Dr. H. G. Knaggs found a
larva near Folkestone upon poplar, and, recognising it,
devoted himself to the search and secured ten more, which

172 LEPIDOPTERA.

with a pupa afterwards found, were reared. He found that
the moths paired readily in confinement, and laid their eggs -
without delay. The same satisfactory result attended their
progeny, and generation after generation—three in a year—
were reared, and hundreds of moths distributed by him to
other collections. Kggs were also given away and larve in
such abundance procured from them that batches were
turned out in various parts of the country, and even in
Ireland, in the hope of fully acclimatising the species. This
attempt was not successful, though in Norfolk the species
continued to exist for several years, and ultimately all the
colonies seem to have died out. Meanwhile there was no
increase in numbers in the original habitat; a furious storm
stripped the poplars of every leaf, and any larve that may
have been upon them at the time doubtless perished. In
1861 the place was again tenanted, since a larva was found
by Mr. Thomas H. Briggs, and others are recorded as having
been found in the two or three following years—though
rarely. In 1876 a pupa was said to have been found under
willow bark at Deal, and about that time another on a wall at
Dover. Both were reared. Two larvae seem to have been
found at Walmer, Kent, in 1878, but from this time I
find no further records until 1893, when eggs were found
near St. Leonards, Sussex, and the moths reared; from
which source a large number has already been bred. These
appear to be of a darker colour than the earlier specimens—
which, however, have certainly faded, a little, towards brown.
I know of no other locality for the species in these islands,
yet in confinement no moth is more easy to rear and pro-
pagate.

Abroad it is found throughout Central Europe, in Eastern
Spain, Italy, Livonia, Finland, Siberia, and in Asia Minor.
Also in Japan, China, India and Ceylon—but called fulgorita,
Walker,—and even in Java.

3, C, reclusa, Fab., pigra, Staud. Cat.—Expanse | inch,

NOTODONTIDEZ. 173

Fore wings purplish-brown with irregular white cross-lines
and asmall bright chocolate blotch before the apex; thorax
strongly crested.

Antennz of the male strongly pectinated, the teeth
blackish, the shaft glossy brown; head pale grey; on its
crown commences a blotch of deep black-brown which
extends back over the middle of the thorax, rising into a
high tuft of upright scales, the hinder portion of which
shades into red-brown; sides of the thorax silvery-grey ;
abdomen erey, rather glossy, with a long, narrow, forked
anal tuft, grey tipped with dark brown. Fore wings broad
behind; costa very straight; apex blunt; hind margin very
fully rounded, the curve sweeping round the anal angle ; dorsal
margin straight; colour purplish-grey ; near the base is a
short white line, edged with brown, extending from the costal
margin to the median nervure; beyond this is another from
the same nervure to the dorsal margin; before the middle is
the normal first transverse line, slender, whitish, angulated
in its upper half; beyond the middle the second transverse
line, rather more oblique, whitish on the costa, passing
through the commencement of a bright chocolate-red blotch
of moderate size which reaches only half-way to the apex and
hind margin; at the end of the discal cell is a black line,
and beneath it another, placed more obliquely, edged with
white, and meeting the second transverse line at the dorsal
margin ; before the hind margin is a line of blackish cloudy
streaks or lunules; cilia grey-brown. Hind wings dark
grey ; cilia greyish white. Female with the antenne very
shortly pectinated ; abdomen stout; otherwise similar.

Underside dull brownish, fore wings tinged with chocolate
toward the apex, and with an oblique whitish streak on the
costa.

Variable in colour, in some instances the fore wings are
much tinged with chocolate-red, in shades and blotches, over
the general surface even to near the base; in others almost

174 LEPIDOPTERA.

wholly dark grey with scarcely a trace of reddish. Some
specimens from the South of Ireland in Mr. F. J. Hanbury’s
collection are very richly coloured and of unusual size.

On the wing in May and as a partial second generation in
August. Only single-brooded in the North.

Larva.—Stout, shining, slightly hairy; head rounded,
dark brown. Dorsal region dull orange, with three ill-defined
grey lines, and a conspicuous black spot, each, on the fifth
and twelfth segments ; sides very dark grey, almost black;
spiracular stripe broad, orange, divided by a dark grey line ;
subdorsal spots raised into orange tubercles; under-surface
and prolegs purplish-brown; legs blackish-brown. In its
northern range the dorsal region is darker or-greyish ; sides
slate-colour, and an interrupted black stripe edges the spira-
cular stripe above. (C. Fenn.)

June, and in a second generation in August, September,
and sometimes October.

On sallow, specially on the low-growing species, such as
Salix fusca, on sprays springing from the ground; occasion-
ally also on low growing shoots of aspen and poplar. In a
chamber formed of one or two leaves drawn together, in
which it remains during the day, coming out at night to feed.

Pura stout, rounded, anal segment also bluntly rounded,
and having asmall spike; bright mahogany-red. In acocoon
among fallen leaves or rubbish on the ground, or occasionally
between leaves on the bush. In this condition through the

winter.

The moth flies usually at night, or even towards morning.
When collecting by means of light in a fen all that I have
seen of this species have arrived just before dawn. In rare
instances it flies also in the daytime. I have caught a male
flying steadily over dwarf sallows in hot sunshine, but its
activity in the net at that time was astounding. Occasionally
it may be found in. the daytime sitting on a sallow twig near

NOTODONTID£. 175

the ground, when with closely clasped, or almost rolled, wings,
erect tufted thorax, and curled up, forked tail, it looks
extremely ornamental, if not dignified.

Especially attached to boggy heaths, shallow marshes, and
fens, where dwarf sallows are abundant; and in the larva
state not scarce. Found in suitable places in all the southern
and eastern counties, and, in the west, in Herefordshire,
Worcestershire, and near Bristol; also in Glamorganshire.
Occasionally in Lancashire, very rarely in Yorkshire, and in
Cumberland, but in most of the intermediate counties records
seem to be wanting. In some of these it may have been
overlooked. In Scotland widely distributed, Clydesdale,
Roxburgh, formerly near Edinburgh ; Perthshire, near Ben
Nevis; Inverness-shire ; and other districts, to West Ross and
Moray. Apparently in all suitable places in Ireland, recorded
from Cork, Kerry, Galway, Westmeath, Mayo, Down, Tyrone
and Donegal. Abroad it is found throughout Northern and
Central Europe, and in Piedmont, Spain, Portugal, Southern
Russia and Armenia.

Genus 12. DILOBA.

_ Antenne long, pectinated, in the male, to the apex, simple
in the female; fore wings very narrowly ovate, without pro-
jections ; thorax slightly crested at the back.

' We have but one species.

1. D. ceeruleocephala, Z.—Expanse 14 inch. Fore
wings purple-brown, with black cross-lines, and two large
greyish-white 8-marks; hind wings whitish with a black
streak at the anal angle.

Antenne of the male rather long, pectinated to the apex
with long solid teeth; light brown. Head black-brown, tufts
at the bases of the antennez whitish; collar broad, bronzy-
brown in front, then black and tipped with white ; remainder
of thorax dark purplish-brown, mixed with silvery-white;

176 LEPIDOPTERA.

the scales long, not erect, except a tuft which forms a distinct
crest at the back; abdomen moderately stout, yellowish-
brown with a more yellowish anal tuft and row of tufts down
the sides. Fore wings rather narrow, slightly ovate; costa
faintly curved; apex blunt; hind margin gently rounded ;
dorsal margin very gracefully curved; no prominent tuft,
though this seems to be suggested by rather rough black scales
along the extreme edge. Colour light purple-brown, more
brown at the base ; first transverse line black, rather perpen-
dicular, but much angulated ; second line scalloped obliquely
above the dorsal margin, but from the middle of the wing
passing as a straight black bar almost to the costa, and dupli-
cated; between the first and second linesand partially in the
discal cell, are two singular-looking, large, whitish, constricted,
ovate spots, edged with black, and centred with pairs of grey
clouds, giving them the appearance of two rough white
figures of 8 connected obliquely together ; beyond the outer
of these the whitish colour is continued to the costa past the
second line; outside this line is a transverse band of brownish
clouds; hind margin pale purplish, slenderly edged with
dark brown scallops; cilia brownish, dashed with darker.
Hind wings whitish with grey nervures, a faint grey trans-
verse cloud and a greyish central streak; at the anal angle
is a wedge-shaped black streak passing through the cilia, and
by it a curved black line ; cilia white with brownish clouds,
Antennee of the female simple; costa of fore wings more
rounded; anal tuft dense, and smoky black; otherwise
similar.

Underside of the fore wings dark smoky-grey, with pale
clouds toward the costa; hind wings whitish, abundantly
dusted with dark grey, and with a blackish lunule and
central transverse stripe; cilia edged and spotted with dark
grey ; female rather darker.

Usually not variable, but in the collection of Mr. 8. Stevens
are two specimens having a dark central band, and devoid of
the two constricted 8 spots; and Dr. R. Freer has an example,

NOTODONTIDZ. 177

reared at Rugeley, Staffordshire, in which the two 8 marks
are of a shining yellow. ‘This unusual colour does not extend
to the following blotch reaching the costa, and it is only
visible by daylight.

On the wing in October and November.

Larva of rather even thickness, short, plump, bristly ;
head round, bluish-grey, with a black spot on each lobe ; body
blue-grey with numerous round black spots from which
bristles arise ; dorsal stripe broad, composed of large yellow
spots, one on the back of each segment from the fifth to the
twelfth, in each case edged with four of the black spots; a
row of similar black spots lies, in a yellow blotch, across each
of the second to the fourth segments, and there is a large one
on the thirteenth ; spiracular stripe yellow, edged above with
smoky-grey and a row of black spots, below with darker grey
which becomes greenish-grey on the under surface; legs
black ; prolegs spotted with black. When younger darker
slate-grey, the head more bluish, with the lobes blacker, and
the dorsal stripe uninterrupted. When extremely young the
black spots and black bristles, which are long, almost exclude
all other markings.

March to June on hawthorn, blackthorn, plum, pear, apple,
cherry, peach, apricot, almond, and even Pyrus japonica,
feeding quite exposed upon the leaves. In the egg through
the winter.

Popa rather stout, blunt, the anal extremity with two pro-
jections, each furnished with small bristles; dull, rough
reddish-brown, or blackish-brown, rather powdered with
bluish. In a tough oval cocoon of strong silk mixed with
morsels of leaf, moss, or earth, on or under the earth on
hedgebanks, or at the bottom of a wall; more rarely under
bark or even attached to a twig in a hedge. In pupa from
June till October or November.

The moth flies at night, but is very rarely observed on the
VOL. UI. M

178 LEPIDOPTERA.

wing, unless attracted to a light. This seems to occur only
on very warm, close autumn nights, and the moths almost
instantly settle down and remain inert for the rest of the
night. On one occasion I saw nearly one hundred specimens
in one night sitting quietly on the frames of gas-lamps at
Norwich, yet I scarcely saw one flying. They were sitting
closely pressed to the frame as though shrinking from
observation. In the daytime it probably sits in hedges or on
branches of trees, and is seldom noticed.

The larva has been aspersed as a ferocious cannibal, but
apparently without sufficient grounds. It may occasionally
devour a smaller relative when not allowed sufficient moisture,
but in this respect it is certainly less culpable than very many
other species. Miss Lilian Gould has shown by careful
experiments, communicated to the Entomological Society of
London, that it is extremely distasteful to birds; yet Kollar
states that it is much relished by some birds on account of
its rather smooth fleshy body. It is quite credible that
different birds may have differing tastes !

In the South of England this species is usually very com-
mon, extremely so in the Hastern Counties and in some of
the Western, though not so in Devon; extending in fair
numbers through Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumberland ; also
widely distributed in Yorkshire, but apparently hardly
noticed in some of the Midland Counties. In Scotland it has
been found at Moncrieff Hill, Perthshire, and in Clydesdale,
but seems to be very local. In Ireland widely distributed
from Cork and Galway to Derry, yet scarce, and only recorded
as abundant in one spot on the Londonderry coast. Abroad
it is found throughout the Continent of Europe, except the
extreme north and south, and is looked upon as a great pest
from the devastation which its larva effects upon the fruit
trees. It occurs also in Asia Minor and Armenia.

NOCTUINA. 179

Group 3. NOCTUINA.

This is a group contrasting greatly with the last, in that
its species, though very numerous, are so closely allied in
structure and appearance that it is extremely difficult to
separate them into well defined and readily recognisable
families. Consequently almost every author has a different
arrangement, and each classification presents difficulties,

That of Guenée, which was adopted by my late friend Mr.
Stainton in his valuable Manual, is on the whole the most
attractive, since by it the group is broken up into sections of
moderate extent, and consisting of species which in many
respects assort well with one another. Yet it hardly seems
to bear a strict examination ; the distinctive characters used
to separate families are hardly stronger than those defining
genera; and the so-called sections are very vague, while
both seem to be cut to pieces by structural characters of
equal importance to those adopted. Indeed, on close exami-
nation of the two main divisions, their separating characters
as arranged by Guenée, do not appear to hold good. For
instance, in the second large division—the Quadrifide—we
find that more than one-half of the species allotted to that
group actually possess the trifid arrangement of the median
nervure of the hind wings from which the other large division
—the Trifide—takes itsname. Perhaps a slight explanation
upon this subject may be useful. ‘The neuration of the fore
wings in this group presents no sufficient variation to be of
service, but that of the hind wings is more diversified.
These organs require in the majority of cases to be folded—
once or twice—in order that they may be concealed under
the narrower fore wings when the insect is quiescent. The
expansion of the wing, as well as its folding, is accomplished,
as every one knows, by means of nervures, or veins as they
are often called—ribs in fact, like those of an umbrella.
These ribs are three in number at the base of the wings, but
in the middle area they branch into a number of separate

180 LEPIDOPTERA.

nervures. A fashion has arisen of counting them backwards
—not from the front, or costal margin, but from the back, or
dorsal margin of the wing. On the whole this is the easier
method, though it is by no means universally approved or
adopted. By it the nervure nearest the dorsal margin is
called vein 1. It is very commonly single and undivided,
and so forms a convenient starting-point. The next nervure
from the base is the median, and it is always divided into
three, sometimes into four branches (trifid or quadrifid), and
as these divisions become, for practical purposes of expansion
of the wings, main ribs, they are called nervures or veins 2,
3, 4 and 5, veins 2, 3 and 4 being permanent, and vein 5 the
great variable character on which the classification has been
made to depend. The remaining main nervure from the
base, the subcostal, is also divided into three strong
branches, veins 6, 7 and 8, and these nervures, or veins 1 to
8, at moderately even distances—following out the com-
parison to an umbrella—stretch the wing into shape, the
margin being produced a little at the termination of each strong
nervure in a faint likeness to the tips of the umbrella, so that
the actual margin of the membrane is usually a little crenulated
or scalloped, although this formation is not usually com-
municated to the cilia. But vein 5 is, in this group, usually
not a strong nervure, but in numerous species extremely thin
and weak, and in many of such tenuity that it can only be
seen, under a good magnifier, by a faint line of reflected
light, being otherwise totally lost in the deep fold which
takes place down its line. Wherever this vein 6 is strong and
stout, the margin takes the usual extension at its tip, and
this is diminished or lost in accordance with the tenuity of the
nervure. In all such cases it takes its origin from a short,
slender, sometimes angulated or oblique, horizontal nervure,
which crosses the space from the median to the subcostal
nervure, uniting them at about the angle of veins 3 and 4 and
of veins 7 and 8. This is known as the discocellular nervule,
but may for convenience be called the cross-bar. It forms the

NOCTUINA. 181

outer edge of the discal cell. In the vast majority of cases
in which vein 5 is moderately or extremely thin and weak,
and produces little impression upon the margin, it arises
from the middle of this cross-bar. When it arises upon or
near the median nervure it is usually strong and produces
the marginal extension. As before remarked, the main fold
of the wing by which it is laid together and packed under
the narrow fore wing is down this vein 5, and very often the
fold is so strong and obvious that the nervure seems to arise
from the base of the wing and pass down the middle of the
discal cell. The other fold, when in use, is between veins 1
and 2. A curious peculiarity of many species which seem to
have the median nervure quadrifid is that it is actually only
bifid, vein 5 arising at a very short distance from the median,
and vein 3 crossing that nervure to meet it. This, however,
is not very noticeable until the wing is denuded of scales.
The structural character, however, which seems te work
most havoc in the arrangement in question is furnished by
the eyes. In the majority of species the surface of the eyes
is, as in the ‘Bombyces, smooth and naked, though often the
corneous surface is so shrunken after death as to present a
more or less irregular pattern of black blotches. But in a
less number of species the whole large convex surface of the
eyes is protected by short and minute, but perfectly even
and regular, upstanding hairs or bristles. ‘These are so ex-
quisitely fine that they only become visible under a good lens,
and even then cannot be seen from above ; but when looked at
across the surface of the eye present a most delicate and
regular cloud of tiny short points, perfectly erect and usually
of a bright brown colour. In this respect no intermediate
gradations seem to occur; all are either completely hairy—or
naked—eyed. Yet to adopt this character alone for separation
of the Noctwina into two families would land the systematist
into greater difficulties, since this curious character cuts
right across some genera which in other respects appear to be
tolerably homogeneous. Thus, the genus Cymatophora, as

182 LEPIDOPTERA.

described in Stainton’s Manual, becomes divided into two parts,
since C. flavicornis and C. ridens have eyes densely hairy, the
rest naked, (But oddly enough, those writers who have separ-
ated these two species into a separate genus—Asphalia—have
placed with them C. diluta, the eyes of which are perfectly
naked.) By this peculiarity of structure Stainton’s genera
Mamestra, Teeniocampa, Aplecta, and Hadena are similarly
bisected. A division consisting only of hairy-eyed species
would embrace the genera Asphalia, Leucania, part of Mam-
estra, part of Taniocampa, Dianthecia, Hecatera, Aplecta
(part), Hadena (part) and Anarta, with a few scattered single
species, leaving the rest of the Noctwina in the other divi-
sion, and would be about as intelligible as a division of the
Butterflies which would place the genera Vanessa, Pararge,
Thecla and Polyommatus on one side, with all the rest on
the other! Nevertheless, it seems undesirable to leave
species separated by so striking a structural peculiarity as
this in the same genus. In view of these considerations, I
find myself unable to follow the arrangement of Mr. Stainton,
convenient and attractive as it otherwise appears.

Other structural characters which may be used for classi-
fication are the presence, position, or absence of eyelashes or
rows of bristles, usually black, in front or at the back of the
eyes; large tufts of elongated scales in curved crests on the
top or at the back of the thorax ; and smaller tufts or crests,
various in form and in number, on the dorsal ridge of the
abdominal segments. The fine bristles or hairs, denominated
for convenience eyelashes, are placed, in a few species, in a
row in front of the large convex eye, and in another row at
its back, either stiffly erect or curiously curved over the eye
as though to afford it additional protection, and closely re-
semble similar appendages in the Hepialide and some of the
Sphingide. Ina larger number of species they appear only
at the back of the eye, and in a still larger number, where
they seem to be absent, they may be found in a prostrate
position among the surrounding long head-scales; but in

. NOCTUINA, 183

certain groups they are quite absent, and in these the eyes
are prominent and the head-scales usually not so long or
dense. The thorax, in many species, is beautifully decor-
ated, the collar in front being raised, broad, and often
banded; the shoulder-lappets frequently uplifted and striped
or edged with dark colour, and the middle and back por-
tions crowned with crests of erect scales, in large curved
tufts, in front and back, often with a dividing hollow or
channel down the middle, separating the top and back crests
into pairs. In other species these crests exist only at the
back, the scales on the front portion being much less erected
and smoother, and this crested character is modified gradually
and almost imperceptibly through numerous species down to
a mere central knob at the back of the thorax formed by the
converging tips of rather long scales. In many genera even
this is absent. The number of species having crests or tufts
of scales on the back of the abdomen is very large, and their
variation extreme. In some species the tufts are erect, stiff,
and horseshoe-shaped, and occur on from one only, to all
the abdominal segments except the last. In others the tufts
are broad and blunt, or those on the basal segments are thick
and distinct, those on following segments dwindling away
and hardly noticeable ; or all are oblique, and more and more
oblique, until there is really no tuft at all, or it is quite
prostrate and only indicated by its darker colour. In cer-
tain groups, on the other hand, the basal tufts are small, and
that on the third abdominal segment, or on the third and
fifth, tall, slender and graceful, being curved over at the tips.
In many species long horizontal tufts or fascicles of pale
hair-scales, projecting from the hinder part of the thorax,
converge over the basal segments of the abdomen and
partially conceal the short abdominal tufts; while in some
species the latter are so fugitive that they are shaken off and
lost in specimens which have flown or become in any degree
worn, and the species, although really decorated with one or
two tufts, becomes credited with none at all—whereby

184 LEPIDOPTERA,

closely allied species have, by mere accident, been placed
far apart. The number of species really devoid of any such
crests is large, but even of these a few have colour-imita-
tions on the back of the abdominal segments.

All these structural appendages seem to be useful in
characterising genera, yet neither of them appears to be so far
dominant as to assist in the division of the whole group into
sections. The arrangement of genera worked out by Lederer,
and adopted in Drs. Staudinger and Wocke’s Catalogue, is
based on many of these characters, and in many respects is
an admirable classification, but some of its genera are pon-
derous, and | think unnecessarily mixed. The structural
characters furnished by Mr. Hampson in his fine work on the
‘“‘ Moths of India ” are extremely clear and valuable, and have
been of very great help to me; but both arrangements seem,
in my opinion, to be damaged by the inclusion of the Cyma-
tophoride among the Notodontide and their exclusion from
the present group. The structure and usefulness of the tongue
in the Cymatophoride, their love of sweet substances as food,
and their crepuscular flight, are characters so diametrically
opposite to those of the Notodontide, and so entirely in accord
with those of the Noctue, that I feel it necessary to follow
Stainton in including them in the latter, and in placing
them at the head of the family, as a stepping-stone from
the Bombycina, to which they, undoubtedly, are in some
respects allied.

Having indulged in a somewhat prolix apology for my
attempt to produce an arrangement of this group differing
in some details from those at present in use, it only remains
to point out that the specific distinctions—although the species
are so closely allied, and in some cases very variable—are
usually easy of recognition and quite reliable, and that they
depend largely upon modifications of a certain plan or pattern
of markings in the fore wings; also, that by the use of a
definite nomenclature for these markings much of the con-
fusion and difficulty of description, and discrimination, of

NOCTUINA. 185

the species is avoided. The terms normal first and second
lines have already been constantly used in this work and will
be at once recognised as lines which really seem to have
some connection with the structure of the wings, so constantly
do they appear, one before, the other beyond, the middle of
the fore wings. Nearer the base is usually—or frequently—a
more or less incomplete line, which in other groups becomes
the outside margin of a basal blotch, and which is known
as the basal line ; nearer the hind margin than the second
line is the subterminal line, usually a mere pale division of
the clouded apical and hind marginal colouring, but which
often assumes sharp and very definite form. Between the
first and second lines, and placed in the discal cell, are usually
two spots large enough to extend completely across the cell
and divide it into sections. That nearer the first line is
usually somewhat round, and is known as the Orbicular
stigma; the other, nearer to the second line, is generally
larger and somewhat broadly kidney-shaped, and is known
as the Reniform stigma. Below the Orbicular stigma, on the
other side of the median nervure, and commonly placed with
its base touching the first line, is a third spot, very frequently
present though not so reliable as the other two, and of a
wedge-shape, known as the Claviform stigma. If the reader
will look back to the genus Sesia, he will find in nearly every
species a bar or blotch at the apex of the discal cell ana-
logous to the Reniform stigma, as indeed is the central spot
in so many other species; and in Huthemonia russula and
Dasychira pudibwnda he will find it more decidedly indi-
cated. In some exotic Bombycina allied to Huthemonia—
notably some South African species—both the Reniform and
Orbicular stigmata are strongly marked. To go even further
back, the markings in the discal cell of the butterflies of the
genera Argynnis and Melitwa are of a somewhat analogous
character, and a resemblance can readily be traced. It is
desirable that these four lines and three stigmata, with their
names, should be fixed upon the mind, or the descriptions of

186 LEPIDOPTERA.

most of the species of Moctuw may, instead of being simple
and easy, appear meaningless, if not incomprehensible.

The vast majority of the species are strongly built, the
thorax stout and often squared, abdomen usually moderately
stout and tapering off small at the tail, rather pointed in the
females; fore wings strong and stiff, not very blunt, either
narrow or triangular; hind wings broad and ample and much
slighter in texture ; wings complete in both sexes in all our
species ; and as a general rule the sexes very similar, some-
times difficult to distinguish.

Antennz in the male most variable, pectinated, half-
pectinated, serrated, tufted, ciliated, or simple and quite
naked ; always threadlike in the female.

Family 1. CYMATOPHORIDS.

Antennz threadlike ; palpi rather short ; thorax rounded,
with scales usually in dense raised tufts ; fore wings rather
broad ; hind wings thin and delicate.

Larv# usually naked, feeding on trees or shrubs, in most
species concealing themselves under, or between, the leaves.

Pup rounded; abdominal segments tapering in a conical
form somewhat as in the Geometride ; texture dull; anal
armature consists of hooked bristles placed on a spine.

Genus 1. GONOPHORA.

Antenne rather short, ciliated; eyes naked, with lashes at
the back ; back of thorax strongly crested ; abdomen without
crests; fore wings broad; hind wings ample, vein 5 very
near to vein 4.

1. G. derasa, Z.—Expanse, 13 inch. Fore wings light
buff, with two broad diverging white stripes and numerous
zigzag lines ; hind wings grey-brown.

Antenne simple, faintly ciliated, light brown; head tufted
pale brown; thorax rather squared, with a broad erect

CYMATOPHORIDE. 187

whitish-brown collar, which is prominently raised at the
shoulders, and edged with yellow-brown at the back;
shoulder-lappets short, raised, yellowish-white, tipped with
yellow-brown ; upper surface covered with erect whitish-drab
scales, tipped with yellow-brown, and formed at the back
into a large expanding double crest; abdomen less stout,
rather tapering, covered with long buff scales, which are in
large masses toward the base ; a row of long tufts down each
side, and a rather conical anal tuft, all of the same colour.
Fore wings broad, triangular, with the costa arched at the
base and apex, straight between; apex bluntly rounded,
almost angulated; hind margin gently rounded; dorsal
margin hollowed before the anal angle. Colour, pale soft
greyish-buff; a curved white stripe, edged with brown,
from the middle of the base, reaches the first transverse
line, which is broad and white, arises on the costa near
the base, and passes obliquely across the wing to beyond
the middle of the dorsal margin, almost extending itself
to join another broad white stripe, which extends from
within the anal angle to the apex. The middle portion of
the wing between these stripes is clouded with rich orange-
brown, which shades off to white along the costa, to yellow
along the first stripe, and to grey-buff along the second,
before which are four parallel, slender, zigzagged white lines,
and a wedge-shaped white streak from the costa; orbicular
and reniform stigmata outlined with white, the latter having
a central white upright line; hind margin with a row of
delicate white crescents, of which the points run into the
cilia and enclose elongate orange-brown marginal streaks ;
cilia buff, tinged with orange-brown. Hind wings ample,
rather long, rounded behind; pale greyish-brown, with a
faintly indicated whitish central transverse cloud; cilia
yellowish-white. Female similar ; abdomen more pointed.
Underside of the fore wings pale yellowish-grey, paler along
the costa and spotted with pale fawn colour; apex with a
pale orange-brown cloud, edged inwardly by a whitish

188 LEPIDOPTERA.

crescent, before which is a faint transverse grey shade;
hind wings yellowish-white with a broad grey shade before
the hind margin. Body and legs densely tufted with long
yellowish-white scales, except the second pair of legs, which
are adorned with large grey tufts.

Not variable with us.

On the wing in June and July. Very rarely casual speci-
mens of a second generation occur in September or October.

Larva smooth, plump, velvety, rather cylindrical, but each
segment rounded, third and fourth segments a little stouter ;
head dark brown or yellow-brown; body red-brown, slightly
translucent ; whole under surface and lower portion of the
sides yellowish-brown ; on each side of the fifth segment is a
conspicuous rounded white spot edged with black ; in some
specimens a second similar spot on each side of the sixth
segment, and occasionally a third on the seventh; dorsal line
slender, blackish; spiracles black ; above them is an obscure
slender blackish line or shade edging the darker colouring ;
legs and prolegs yellowish.

August to November, on bramble (Rubus), but has been
known to eat hazel and even hawthorn. Feeding only at
night ; concealed in the daytime under moss or dead leaves,
and sometimes in a chamber of leaves, joined together, on
the ground.

Pupa short; thoracic portion very cylindrical, squared in
front; abdominal segments tapering regularly to a sharp
anal point; mahogany-brown, darker in front; tip of wing-
cases produced. Ina cocoon of earth under the surface of
the ground.

In this state through the winter.

This beautiful moth is very rarely found in the daytime ;
doubtless it hides among brambles and other herbage, or
among dead leaves on the ground in woods. It flies at dusk,
sometimes at earliest twilight, and is extremely fond of

CYMATOPHORIDE. 189

sweets, such as honeydew, and is readily attracted by the
sweet compound of treacle or boiled sugar mixed with beer
and rum, and technically known as “sugar,” to the attrac-
tions of which so many species of the present group fall
victims. It does not, however, settle quietly down to feed,
but sits with wings half erected and quivering; and on the
approach of the collector will often dart off and fly round
him in a tantalising way, but from its light colour is easily
captured in the net. If not caught, it does not always return
very readily to the sugar.

Common in wooded districts all over the South of England,
except in Cornwall, where it seems to be scarce. Widely
distributed, though not plentiful, in the Fen districts and
throughout the Eastern Counties to Lincolnshire and York-
shire; also in the West, in Herefordshire, Worcestershire,
Cheshire and Lancashire; scarce in the Midlands, though
found in Warwickshire and North Staffordshire. In Wales
I have found it in Pembrokeshire, and it doubtless occurs in
other suitable localities. In Scotland there seems to be but
a single record—at Gourock, by Mr. P. Cameron. In Ireland
apparently in every wooded district from Dublin to Sligo,
and from Kerry to Londonderry, and sometimes very
common.

Abroad it has a wide distribution: all Central Europe,
Northern Italy, Livonia, Armenia, Tartary, Himalayas,
Burma, Bengal, Japan. Specimens from some of these
Eastern countries are known under the names of Jndica,
fraterna and derasoides. From North America a form known
as scripta is more of an olive-brown, and very lovely, but
apparently not distinct.

Genus 2. THYATIRA.

Antenne rather short, curved, ciliated ; eyes naked, having
lashes at the back; thorax rounded, strongly crested at the
back; shoulder-lappets raised ; abdomen crested ; fore wings

190 LEPIDOPTERA:

rather broad, having large gaily-coloured spots; hind wings
ample; vein 5 from the middle of the cross-bar.

1. T. batis, Z—Expanse, 1} inch. Fore wings dark
olive-brown, with large, rounded, roseate spots; hind wings
dull grey.

Antenne short, slender, curved, faintly ciliated, light
brown ; head pale smoky-brown; collar broad, densely scaled,
rather erect, smoky-brown ; remainder of thorax covered with
raised pale olive scales, strongly barred or shot with purplish-
pink, and expanded at the back into a broad crest, behind
which is a tuft of pale reddish or bright pink scales; abdo-
men rather slender, tapering, glossy whitish-grey, with three
or four light or dark brown dorsal crests or erected tufts, the
third the most conspicuous ; but these are fugitive and only to
be seen in perfection in very fine specimens, and in them some-
times almost prostrate or concealed by long fascicles of whitish
hair-scales, which arise at the back of the thorax; lateral
tufts of the abdomen small; anal tuft rather long. Fore
wings somewhat ovate; costa arched at the base, then gently
curved to the apex, which is rather suddenly rounded; hind
margin gently rounded; dorsal margin tolerably straight ;
colour very opaque, dark olive-brown or blackish-olive, with
large, rounded, sharply defined, bright pinkish spots, (like
peach petals, whence its common name of the “ peach-
blossom”). Of these spots one, occupying the basal area, is
pinkish-white, and contains delicate fulvous clouds and dots ;
one, equally large, is at the anal angle, bright pink, with an
olive-fulvous central cloud; a very small one beyond it on
the hind margin ; two of full size and of a lovely pink on the
costal margin toward the apex; and an elongated blotch
along the middle of the dorsal margin, pinkish, with a long
fulvous cloud ; cilia dark olive-brown, with a paler line at
the base, and before it, along the hind margin, a series of
faint pale crescents. Hind wings ample, rounded, but with

CYMATOPHORIDE. 191

a slight hollow in the hind margin before the anal angle;
greyish-white at the base, gradually shading off to dark grey
behind, but with an indistinct whitish central transverse
band ; nervures dark grey; cilia light brown, tipped with
whitish. Female similar, but with the abdomen rather
stouter and more pointed ; tufts smaller.

Underside of fore wings whitish-grey, shading to smoky-
grey toward the costa; a dark grey central shade; and from
the costa two black bars, followed by whitish patches, the
large spots of the upper side faintly visible. Hind wings
whitish ; nervures grey ; and with pale grey transverse clouds.
Body and legs tufted with greyish-white, but first pair of
legs blackish in front and tufted with white.

Usually not variable, but specimens from western districts,
as South Wales and the North of Ireland, frequently have
the pink colouring of the back of the thorax and of the large
spots paler or replaced by pale buff.

On the wing in June and July; occasionally as a second
generation in August, September, or even October.

Larva naked, rather velvety ; head large, divided, the
divisions rounded; on the back of the second segment is a
divided tubercle or hump, and one still larger on the third,
the points of which rather curve forward ; on the fifth to the
tenth are raised, undivided humps or ridges, and on the fifth
and sixth are also lateral swellings; on the twelfth is arather
conical raised hump or ridge; all these humps are dark olive-
brown, but pale brown at the back; the remainder of the
upper surface is pale olive-brown or reddish-brown ; under
surface and legs pale brown ; along the spiracular region is
an irregular brown line.

July to September on bramble, and occasionally raspberry ;
feeding at night, and concealed under dead leaves during the
day. It usually rests with its anal segment slightly elevated.

Pupa short and thick, rather angulated or almost bluntly
pointed in front; thorax very thick and short; abdomen even

192 LEPIDOPTERA.

thicker, tapering rapidly to a rather short, thick bent spike at
the tail. Mahogany-red, with several blackish spots on the
back of the thorax, and in a double row down the abdomen.
In a cocoon of silk and earth underground. In this state
through the winter.

This exquisitely beautiful moth is very rarely observed in
the daytime, or at rest. Doubtless it conceals itself among
dead leaves on the ground or among bramble bushes, but is
partial to woods and open wooded districts. It flies at dusk
and may be captured flying at hedge sides; but much more
frequently at sugar, to which it is very partial, resting upon
it as it feeds, with quivering, upraised wings, and often, but
by no means always, flying off at the approach of a light.
If disturbed it readily returns to the feast, and is easily
captured. On warm favourable nights specimens will con-
tinue to arrive all night long, and sometimes it is much more
common towards morning.

Common in and near woods in all the Southern and South-
Eastern Counties, though less so in the Fen districts; also
in South Wales to Pembrokeshire, and in the West to
Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Not common in the
Midlands, though found in North Staffordshire and War-
wickshire ; farther north it is widely distributed in Cheshire,
Lancashire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and even Cumberland.
Local in Scotland, though rather common in Perthshire.
Elsewhere found in Roxburghshire, at Dunoon, Renfrew and
Bute; but in the Eastern districts much farther north—rather
scarce in the Edinburgh district, at Cramond, Corstorphine
Hall, and Dunbar, but extending as far as Moray.

Apparently in all wooded districts in Ireland, and some-
times in great abundance. Mr. Kane says that he has seen
it in clouds, and most persistent at sugar.

Very widely distributed abroad, throughout Central and
Northern Europe, except the Polar regions, Northern Italy,
Corsica, Armenia, Asiatic Turkey generally, Tartary, and

CYMATOPHORIDE. 193

Northern India; specimens from the North-West Himalayas,
having the ground colour more dull and leaden and the spots
less bright, being known as var. cognata. Also obtained from
Java, but called victriz, and from North America, very similar
to our western variety, but under the name of Mexicana.
A browner form from Java, known as vicina, appears to be
very doubtfully distinct.

Genus 3. CYMATOPHORA.

Antenne rather short, ciliated ; eyes naked ; lashes present
at the back, but usually prostrate; thorax very slightly
crested at the back ; fore wings broad, with transverse stripes
or bands; hind wings ample, but very thin and delicate ;
vein 5 variable.

Larv naked, concealed between spun-together leaves on
trees.

Pup rather conical with tapering abdominal segments and
minutely punctured dull surface; anal bristles placed on a
spine and forming curious hooks.

A table of the four species may be useful.

A. Thorax and abdomen slender, fore wings broad, with
broad central band.

B. Two black dots outside central band and a grey apical
streak. C. duplaris.

B*. Black dots absent, apical streak black. C._fluctuwosa.

A*, Thorax and abdomen rather stout, fore wings less broad.

C. Fore wings grey or purplish-grey; first and second
lines quadrupled ; stigmata indistinct ; whitish.

C. or.
C?. Fore wings purple-brown, first and second lines double,
stigmata ashy-white. C. ocularis.

1. C. duplaris, Z.—Expanse 14} to 14 inch. Body
slender ; fore wings very broad, whitish or pale grey, with a
very broad central transverse purplish-grey band, outside
which are two black dots; hind wings greyish-white.

VOL. III. N

194 LEPIDOPTERA.

Antennz rather short, minutely ciliated, pale purplish-
brown ; palpi short but thinly scaled and visible, dark brown ;
head grey-brown; thorax rounded, but narrow; collar light
brown, tipped with darker; rest of thorax silvery-grey,
shading to brown behind ; shoulder lappets uplifted ; abdomen
slender, smooth, brownish-white, with small lateral and anal
tufts. Fore wings very broad; costa much arched at the
base, and regularly rounded to the apex, which is squared off ;
hind margin long, curved; dorsal margin rather straight ;
ground colour greyish-white, much rippled with brown ; basal
line faintly indicated, purplish-brown ; beyond it is a very
broad purple-brown central band completely crossing the
wing, broadest on the costal margin and a little hollowed
obliquely in front and behind; in this are indications of two
slender darker lines, which probably represent the normal
first and second lines; immediately beyond it, at the end of
the discal cell, are two distinct black dots; hind marginal
region broadly banded or rippled with purplish-brown,
through which runs the subterminal line, white and much
indented, and before it a similar but fainter line. An oblique
dark brown streak runs into the extreme apex; hind margin
edged with short black streaks; cilia purplish-grey. Hind
wings broad, rounded, greyish-white, with a slender transverse
grey shade before the middle, and a broad pale grey band
along the hind margin; cilia whitish. Female extremely
similar, body a little stouter, with a blunt anal tuft.

Underside yellowish-white, with two faint grey bands across
all the wings; body and legs yellowish-white.

Variation in this species appears to be climatal. In the
North of England and in Scotland the ground colour is more
smoky or purplish-grey, the markings becoming very obscure,
or, with the exception of the two black dots, the whole surface
of the fore wings assuming a smoky-purplish colour. I have
found this variety with typical specimens even so far south as
Norfolk. In hill districts a much darker colour is sometimes
assumed, the fore wings becoming of a blackish-purple and

CYMATOPHORIDE. 195

the outer portion of the hind wings nearly as dark; such
specimens have been taken at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire.
From the Perthshire hills similar dark examples are relieved
by one or two slender delicate white lines. Those from the
Shetland Isles are larger than ordinary, less black, but mottled
with dark colour. Irish specimens are also large, and are of
unusually pale forms ;—some of those exhibited to the South
London Entomological Society, by Mr. de Vismes Kane, were
of a beautiful white colour, the transverse purplish-brown
bands very variable in width and in depth of colour, in some
cases being hardly more than a shading of silvery-grey.
On the wing in June and July.

Larva flattened, smooth, attenuated at each extremity,
particularly behind; head large, rounded, and slightly bifid ;
a horny plate on the second segment. Whitish or yellowish
on the sides and undersurface, with a broad, dark grass-green
dorsal stripe occupying the whole space between the sub-
dorsal lines; dorsal line grey ; spiracular line very indistinct,
yellowish ; dorsal spots slightly pale, lateral spots and spiracles
black; head reddish-brown ; mouth and a spot on each side
of it black ; second segment with the plate black, and a black
lateral spot on each side in a line with the spiracles. When
young the green dorsal stripe is much paler. (C. Fenn.)

August, September, and October, on birch, and sometimes
on hazel, alder, and oak. During the day it conceals itself
in a habitation formed of green leaves united by silken
threads, upon the tree. At night it comes forth to feed, and
may then readily be shaken or beaten off, though very hard
to dislodge in the daytime.

Pupa rather stout, deep dull red or reddish-black, with the
incisions of the abdominal segments paler. Spun up ina
loose silken cocoon between two or three leaves on the tree.
(C. Fenn). In this state, among the fallen leaves, through
the winter.

196 LEPIDOPTERA.

The moth sits in the daytime on the branches of trees,
and has even been observed, before its wings were fully
spread, running up the tree trunks to attain the branches.
When shaken out it falls straight to the ground and hes
among the dead leaves. At dusk it flies, and is exceedingly
fond of sweets, settling down to the sugar placed on a tree
trunk, and allowing itself to be captured by the hand, though
on first arrival at the sugar it flutters a little and will fly off
if disturbed.

In woods and open wooded districts ; common in most of
the Southern and Eastern counties, but scarce in the
Cambridge fen district, and in Somerset and Devon. In
Wales it must occur, though I find no record ; but it is found
in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, very locally in Warwick-
shire, Staffordshire, and Lancashire, and widely distributed
in Yorkshire. In Scotland it is recorded from Perthshire,
Lanark, Ayr, Arran and other parts of Argyleshire, and in
other localities to Ross-shire and Moray, in hill districts
reaching an altitude 1200 feet ; also in Shetland.

In Ireland it had been taken at Garinish Island, Kerry, by
the Hon. Emily Lawless, also at Killarney, in Wicklow,
Down, Lough Swilly, Donegal, and other wooded districts.

Abroad it extends through Central and Northern Europe,
North Italy, Southern and Eastern Russia, and Siberia.

2. C. fluctuosa, Hiib.—Expanse 1} to 1? inch. Body
slender; fore wings very broad, silvery-white, rippled and
banded with purplish-grey ; no black dots beyond the band ;
hind wings whitish.

Antennee short and rather thick, curved, ciliated, light-
brown; face blackish-brown, back of the head pale brown ;
thorax slightly crested at the back, pale brown, collar and
shoulder-lappets white, edged with purple-grey ; abdomen
smooth, whitey-brown, with minute lateral tufts, but rather
long compressed anal tuft. Fore wings very broad, shining;
costa arched at the base and rounded to the apex, which is

CYMATOPHORIDA:. 197

bluntly squared; hind margin straight below the apex but
curving off to the anal angle, which is rather fully rounded ;
dorsal margin gracefully curved; colour silvery-white, very
much rippled with purple-grey; basal line purple-grey,
curved and indented ; immediately beyond it commences a
very broad purple-grey transverse band, which occupies the
whole middle portion of the wing, being broadest on the
costa, having its inner edge rather curved, and its outer very
bluntly angulated ; within it are darker transverse lines or
stripes and a blackish streak at the end of the discal cell.
Beyoxd it is a much indented and rippled slender transverse
purple-grey line, followed by a series of clouds of the same
colour edged by a beautiful rippled line of the silvery-white
ground colour, from which to the hind margin is a band of
purple-grey ; before the apex isa thick distinct oblique black
streak ; cilia very glistening, purplish-grey with a black line
at the base and a grey one through the middle Hind wings
very ample, rounded and rather waved at the margin ; white,
faintly clouded with grey from the base, rather more
strongly so along the hind margin; a brownish line at the
base of the cilia, which are faintly yellowish with the tips
white. Female with the body stouter and the costa of the
fore wings straighter ; otherwise similar.

Underside of the fore wings white, clouded with grey to
the middle and along the costa, and having two greyish
transverse stripes near the hind margin; hind wings also
white, with similar hind-marginal bands; body whitish-
brown ; legs brownish.

Rather variable in size, and in the distinctness of the
rippled lines beyond the broad central band. Specimens
from Ireland are sometimes large and pale in colour.

On the wing in June.

Larva rather flattened, wrinkled ; head broad, lobes rather
divided, orange-brown, mouth black, and a large black ring,
centred with white, on each lobe; second segment with a

198 LEPIDOPLERA:

ereenish-white dorsal plate dotted with black; remainder of
the dorsal surface dull pale purplish-grey, with deeper purple
lorsal and subdorsal lines, and a row of black spots at the
upper edge of the latter; undersurface pale yellowish-white,
spiracular lines pale purple, spiracles black, legs and prolegs
tipped with purplish-grey. Sometimes the whole surface is
whitish.

August, September, and October on birch, passing the day-
time between united leaves and feeding exposed at night,
when it is easily beaten off. Holds tenaciously to its habita-
tion in the daytime, and is difficult to dislodge.

Pupa rather stout, conical, reddish-brown, of delicate
texture ; spine rather short.

Spun up between birch leaves or among rubbish on the
ground. In this state through the winter.

The moth hides in bushes and trees in the daytime, and when
suddenly disturbed will sometimes fly a short distance. It flies
naturally at dusk, rather swiftly, and from the whiteness of its
hind wings is conspicuous, but its time of flight is very short
and it is by no means so readily attracted by sugar as its
congeners. Very local and almost confined to woods. Found
in various parts of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hants, Hssex, and
Suffolk ; also in Herefordshire, and Wyre Forest, Worcester-
shire. In Yorkshire in several localities, the neighbourhood
of Sheffield especially, and I have seen two specimens which
were taken by Mr. George Dawson, in Cumberland ; but am
not aware of any certain record in Scotland. In Ireland it
has been taken, though rarely, at Killarney, Kenmare, and
Lough Gill, Co. Shgo. Not so widely distributed abroad as
the previous species, but found throughout the greater portion
of Central Europe, and in Southern and Eastern Russia.

3. C. or, Schif—Expanse 1} to 12 inch. Stout, fore wings
pale purplish-grey with two cross bands composed of three
or four black lines each; stigmata indistinct, whitish ; hind
wings pale brownish-grey.

CYMATOPHORIDE. 199

Antenne simple, faintly ciliated, pale yellowish-brown; eyes
naked; palpi tufted, rather projecting; head mottled with grey
and black ; thorax stout; collar sharply defined, mixed black
and pale grey ; shoulders very prominent, and the lappets up-
lifted and covered with lone grey, greenish-grey, or purplish-
grey scales; rest of thorax similar, the scales forming a very
obscure tuft or crest at the back ; fascicles broad, whitish,
meeting over the abdomen, which is stout, greyish-white,
with minute whiter lateral tufts, and a contracted anal tuft,
also with a central dorsal ridge, on which are sometimes visible
minute tufts of half-raised scales. Fore wings moderately
broad ; costa nearly straight ; apex bluntly angulated; hind
margin very slightly curved, but more so toward the anal
angle; dorsal margin also gently rounded; colour pale pinkish-
grey or purplish-grey, with a distinct, black, interrupted and
angulated basal line, followed at a short distance by a broad
transverse band, composed of four rippled black lines, which
rather diverge at the dorsal margin ; of these the first is thick
and deep black, the fourth equally conspicuous and more
notched ; beyond the middle is a second transverse band,
more oblique and formed of three or four repeatedly-angled
black lines ; halfway from this to the hind margin is a rippled
whitish line, edged outwardly with blackish points, from one
of which a black line runs to the apex of the wing; between
the two broad bands are the two stigmata, the orbicular
round and indistinct, the reniform rather squared and divided,
both whitish or ashy-white; hind margin edged with faint
black dashes; cilia brownish. Hind wings rather elongated,
with the hind margin sinuous; colour pale greyish-brown,
with a faint paler transverse stripe in the middle. Female
with the abdomen very stout and short, almost devoid of
tufts, anal segment shortly pointed, otherwise similar.

Underside pale smoky-grey, with faint indications of a
darker central spot, and two darker transverse stripes beyond
the middle ; body and legs smoky-grey.

Variation in this species seems to be mainly climatal. In

200 LEPIDOPTERA.

the South of England the prevailing ground colour is grey
with but a faint tinge of pinkish; in Scotland it is decidedly
purplish, and this colour is intensified in examples from the
Scottish Isles; but in Perthshire there is a tendency to slate
colour, with the stigmata more yellowish. In Sutherlandshire
and the Hebrides the stigmata are in some specimens quite
yellow or even orange. Such specimens are in Mr. W. H. B.
Fletcher’s collection. In Ireland there is but little indication
of either the pinkish or purplish tint of ground colour, which
is pale grey, but with very strongly accentuated dark stripes.
In Mr. H. Goss’s collection is a specimen from Sussex with
the broad central space very strikingly paler than ordinary.
Mr. 8. Stevens has two in which the stigmata are absent.
On the wing in June and July.

Larva soft, smooth, flattened, attenuated behind; head
large, shining, much flattened; on the second segment is a
narrow horny plate. Dull yellowish-green, dorsal line darker,
spiracular line whitish, interrupted; head dull deep yellow
or yellowish-brown, mouth blackish ; undersurface, legs and
prolegs rather paler than the ground colour; on the front
edge of the second segment are two black spots. Though
not shining, it has a semi-transparent appearance from the
thin texture of the skin. (C. Fenn.)

July, August, and September, sometimes even in October,
on poplar and aspen, drawing together two leaves, uniting
them with silk, and living within in the daytime, but coming
out at night to feed.

Pura short, stout, much rounded and thickest in the
middle; anal extremity with a long pointed spike, bulbous at
the base. Red-brown, minutely punctured all over. In a
thin but strong silken cocoon of a brown colour, placed
between two spun-together leaves. The Rev. J. Hellins
says that the pups of Scotch specimens are reddish-brown,
those from the South of England usually black. They

CYMATOPHORIDEA. 201

remain in cocoon among the fallen leaves through the winter,
and, in Scotland, occasionally even through two winters.

The moth is rarely observed in the daytime. It flies at
dusk and comes willingly to sugar on tree trunks, but feeds
with its wings half erect and quivering, and is extremely
skittish, and rather difficult to secure. It continues to fly
until late at night.

Rather common among poplars in the Southern English
counties, less so in the Hastern counties, and apparently
absent from the Midlands, except the fen district of
Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, where it is not scarce.
Found also in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire,
and very locally in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and
Cumberland. In Scotland much more frequently found,
being very common in the Clyde district and extending freely
to Argyle, Moray, Ross, and Sutherland ; also to the Hebrides
and even the Shetland Isles. Rare in Ireland, but found in
Wicklow, Cavan, Galway, Sligo, Londonderry, and at Lough
Swilly, Donegal.

Abroad it is found throughout Central and Northern
Europe, except the coldest portions of the latter, Northern
Italy, Livonia, Central and Southern Russia, Finland and
Tartary.

4, C. ocularis, L.(?); octogesima, Staud. Cat.—Ex-
panse 12 to 12 inch. Stout, fore wings light brown, with
two pairs of transverse black lines; stigmata whitish and
resembling the figures 80.

Antennz of the male very faintly ciliated, simple, light
brown; eyes naked ; head densely tufted with smoky-black
scales, mixed with paler; collar broad, pale grey mixed with
blackish ; thorax stout, densely covered with slightly raised
brown scales, very faintly crested at the back, but the
shoulders prominently raised ; abdomen stout, very pale brown,
with small lateral and anal tufts. Fore wings moderately

202 LEPIDOPTERA.

broad, costa rather arched at the base, thence gently curved ;
apex bluntly angulated ; hind margin very slightly rounded ;
colour pale purplish fulvous, paler in the central area, with
very faint indications of a transverse line at the extreme base,
and of another, rather angulated, beyond it; first line near
the middle of the wing, deep black and duplicated ; some-
what bent below its centre ; second line also black, double,
elbowed outwardly, but unusually perpendicular; beyond it
is another blackish line, not quite parallel, and outside this a
broad space tinged with smoky-grey, in which is a rippled
shade of the pale ground colour, terminating in a_ black
oblique line, which runs into the apex. Orbicular stigma
greyish-white, oval, with a distinct black streak in the middle ;
reniform stigma also white, and black centred, but so con-
stricted in the middle as to form a very distinct figure 8,
while the other stands for a very tolerable 0. Hind margin
edged with a black line; cilia purple-brown, divided by a
darker line. Hind wings pale smoky-grey, with a central
transverse whitish stripe ; nervures, and a long slender discal
lunule, dark brown; cilia rather long, whitish. Female very
similar, abdomen stouter and almost devoid of tufts.

Underside very pretty, pearly white, broadly clouded with
smoky-brown along the costa, and having, on all the wings,
two broad smoky-brown transverse bands, of which the first
is divided by whitish clouds, most distinct in the female, the
outer one being often very faint in the other sex; body pale-
brownish ; legs whitish, dark brown in front.

Hardly variable, except that some specimens have a faint
central dusky shade, and some smoky clouding before the
first line.

On the wing at the end of May and in June and July.

LarvA moderately stout, rather clumsy; slightly tapering
at each end; head broad, glossy, a little rough, orange-
ochreous, barred on each side the mouth with black, which
extends to the ocelli; round the pale antennal papillz are

CYMATOPHORIDA. 203

square black marks; skin of the body soft and smooth, not
glossy ; dorsal region faintly yellow, tinged with greyish and
changing almost imperceptibly to primrose-yellow along the
spiracular region, and then again to the delicate tint of the
back ; a very faint glaucous pulsating vessel shows partially
through the dorsal line. On the second segment is a narrow
shining pale-greyish dorsal plate, and another is on the anal
segment; on each side of the second segment are three black
spots; on each side of the third, two, and of the fourth and
twelfth one each; spiracles pale pink; tubercular dots
minute, whitey-brown, each with a single hardly perceptible
hair; legs and prolegs shining yellowish-white. When very
young pale straw-colour, inclining to greenish. When half
grown the body is pale buff, very velvety in appearance ; head
pale honey-yellow, with black ocelli, and black on each side
of the mouth; the dots on the body as already described.
As it grows it becomes greyish-green, with orange-brown head,
and gradually assumes the adult colouring. (W. Buckler.)

End of June to September, on poplar. When very young
it commences to unite the leaves together with short thick
silken threads, and then feeds on one surface only of the
leaf. When half an inch long it begins to eat quite through
the leaf, and from this time feeds in the ordinary manner,
continuing to hide in its domicile of leaves during the day,
and to leave it at night for the purpose of obtaining food
without injuring its home. The short threads, ending in
broad studs or pads of white silk, with which the leaves are
fastened together, are very curious. They are strong, and the
larva is not readily dislodged. Sometimes it selects a curled
dead leaf on the tree as its habitation.

Pupa thick and short, the surface covered, except at the
abdominal incisions, with minute pits, or on the thorax and
wing covers by minute ridges; at the anal extremity are
two converging spines, of which the recurved tips meet and
cross each other, Colour black, divisions of segments dull

204 LEPIDOPTERA:

purplish-red ; surface rather glistening. In a delicate cocoon
of open network, either between leaves, in moss on the surface
of the ground, among grass at the foot of a poplar, or under
loose bark on that tree. In this stage through thew inter.

So far as I know, the moth is never taken in the daytime.
It doubtless hides in the poplar trees. It flies at rather late
dusk and into the night, and comes to sugared trees, but is
very timid, sipping with raised wings, and flying wildly
round if disturbed ; but if allowed to feed a while is not quite
so restless. To obtain it poplar trunks should be sugared.
A very local and far from common species. Most frequent
in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and the Cambridgeshire and
Huntingdonshire fen and chalk districts; also found in
Somerset, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, and Herefordshire,
but very locally ; and there is a record of its occurrence in
Sussex. This appears to be the extent of its range in these
islands; abroad it is found throughout Central, and great part
of Northern Kurope, Northern Italy, Portugal, Armenia, and
Tartary.

A very beautiful series of hybrids between the last two
species has been reared by Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher. All are
much alike and yield nothing in ornamental appearance to
either parent, being rosy-grey, with the black quadruple bands
of C. or and the 80-marks of C. ocularis, which last are pure
white.

Genus 4. ASPHALIA.

Antenne short, thick, ciliated; eyes hairy, with thick back- .
lashes, hardly erect, but mixed with the head scales, which
project and give the head a hairy aspect; thorax stout,
usually crested at the back; abdomen moderately stout,
usually not crested ; fore wings not broad, banded ; hind wings
with vein 5 arising close to the median nervure.

Larv& naked, concealed under drawn together leaves of
trees or bushes.

1. A. diluta, Schifi—Expanse l3inch. Body moderately

CYMATOPHORIDE. 205

stout, fore wings narrow, whitish, with two straight purplish-
brown transverse stripes ; hind wings whitish.

Antennz notched, ciliated, brownish, head and_ palpi
strongly tufted, grey; eyes naked, with a few blackish
lashes at the back ; thorax moderately broad, covered with
uplifted grey scales ; shoulder lappets raised and prominently
tufted at the corners; the long scales of the middle of the
back drawn together behind into a slight tuft or crest;
following this, from the back of the thorax, long tufts or
fascicles of white hair-scales spread over the base of the
abdomen, which is shining greyish-white, and has on its third
segment a conspicuous oblique blackish dorsal crest, or tuft,
of semi-erect scales. This crest is in some specimens absent,
while in others there is a small additional tuft on the previous
segment; lateral tufts distinct, whitish ; anal tuft narrow.
Fore wings rather narrow, costa very slightly rounded
throughout ; apex sharply angulated, and hind margin below
it slightly hollowed, then gracefully curved off to the dorsal
margin, which is very straight; colour greyish-white, faintly
tinged with brown ; two broad, almost straight, purple-brown
stripes cross the wing and are very conspicuous, the first,
before the middle, is edged outwardly by the normal first
line, which is black and rather undulating ; just beyond the
middle is the second line, also black and much waved, forming
the inner edge of the second stripe; beyond this the hind
marginal space is very pale purplish-grey, with two rippled
paler transverse lines, and the nervures slenderly streaked
with black, as also are the costal and hind margins; cilia
greyish-white. Hind wings rather short, rounded, white,
with two broad greyish transverse stripes, one in the middle,
the other along the margin; cilia whitish. Female with abdo-
men rather stouter and more pointed, otherwise quite similar.

Underside of all the wings white, shining, each with an
indistinct central cloudy transverse stripe or band, followed
by a fainter and more slender cloudy stripe; body and legs
whitish.

206 LEPIDOPTERA.

Rather variable in the ground colour, from whitish to pale
brownish-gréy or pale slate-colour ; and also in the depth of
colour of the transverse stripes. Mr. 8. J. Capper has an
exquisite specimen, taken in Yorkshire, in which they are of
a very rich dark purple-brown, the base equally dark, having
also two additional purplish stripes, and two of an orange-
yellow, the remaining surface being clouded with grey ;
another, from the New Forest, in the same collection, is
pinkish-white with one broad and one narrow stripe ; in that
of the late Mr. H. Doubleday is one of an almost unicolorous
slate-grey ; Dr. Mason has similar specimens, and others with
the middle of the wings suffused with grey; but all these
extreme forms are rare.

On the wing in September, sometimes at the end of
August.

Larva plump, almost fat, but flattened above and below,
smaller at the extremities, naked; head narrow, rounded
above, blackish-brown ; body pale purplish-grey or greenish-
grey, tinged with yellowish above, and with a slender dark grey
dorsal line, and more slender grey spiracular lines dotted on
each segment with black ; spiracles black ; feet greyish-white.

April to June on oak, concealed in the daytime between
spun-together leaves ; coming out at night to feed. Difficult
to disturb from its hiding-place during the day, and, for so
common a species, very seldom observed.

Pura rather slender, abdomen conical, spine very slender
and delicate ; surface rather dull ; reddish-brown; in a slight
cocoon among’ leaves.

The moth is said to sit, sometimes, on tree trunks, but is
not often so observed ; probably it usually hides during the
day in oak trees among the leaves. Ii flies at dusk and comes
very freely to sugar spread on the oak trunks, sitting down
quietly with closed wings to feed, and allowing itself to be
captured with the greatest ease. Sometimes it may be thus
secured before dark and without the aid of a lantern.

Principally confined to oak woods, and common in most of

CYMATOPHORIDEA. 207

the Southern counties ; less so in Devon and apparently not
recorded from Cornwall, yet locally common in Pembroke-
shire, and probably in suitable places throughout South
Wales. Scarce in the Cambridgeshire fen district and not
very common in Norfolk and Suffolk, nor in Somersetshire,
Gloucestershire, and Leicestershire. Locally it seems to be
much more frequent in Warwickshire, North Staffordshire,
Lincolnshire, Lancashire, and Cumberland, and rather widely
distributed in Yorkshire. In Scotland it is only known to
extend a short distance into the districts of the Solway and
Clyde ; and in Ireland the only record is that of the late Mr.
HK. Birchall, at Killarney, which has not been confirmed, and
may have been a mistake.

Rather local abroad, but found in Southern, Central and
Kastern Germany, Northern and Central France, Switzerland,
Belgium and Hungary.

(Since the last “part” went to press, it has been brought
to my notice that this species has hairy eyes, though the
hairs are singularly minute and difficult to distinguish.)

2. A. flavicornis, /.—HExpanse 1 to 13 inch. An-
tenn yellow; fore wings long and pointed, slate-grey, with
slender black transverse lines ; hind wings pale grey.

Antennee in the male short, thick, ridged, slightly ciliated,
brownish-yellow ; eyes very densely set with erect brown
minute hairs or bristles, and thickly encompassed by upright
projecting scales, mingling with which are the black lashes
at the back; head very hairy, a dense dark grey-brown tuft
of erect scales between the antennez; thorax stout, rather
squared, with the shoulders accentuated by raised tufts,
wholly covered with long slate-grey or yellowish-grey scales ;
fascicles broad, converging, whitish ; abdomen rather stout,
hairy-looking, blackish-grey, with small yellowish-grey lateral
tufts, and grey-brown anal tuft. Fore wings elongated and
rather narrow, with very slightly curved costa; apex sharply
angulated ; hind margin oblique, first straight, then smoothly

208 LEPIDOPTERA.

rounded off quite to the dorsal margin, which is rather
hollowed and gracefully curved. Colour soft slate-grey, paler
or darker, usually with a greenish or yellowish gloss, and the
costal margin paler; basal line rather distinct, black, twice
curved and sloping obliquely outward from the costal to the
dorsal margin; first line immediately beyond and parallel
with it, double, black, sometimes partially triple ; second line
also black, duplicated, undulating, but oblique in the opposite
direction, placed so that these two lines are more than double as
far apart on the costal as on the dorsal margin ; the costal space
between them is very often sharply paler, sometimes almost
ashy-grey ; below this, in the discal cell, is a large round or
rather squared yellow-grey spot faintly outlined with blackish,
representing the orbicular stigma, and by it a very faint
suggestion of another spot, smaller, mottled with grey, repre-
senting the reniform stigma. Below these the central space
is usually darker. Beyond the double second line is a nearly
parallel blackish transverse shade, and beyond this a rippled
dark grey subterminal line; also a slender black line at the
hind margin; cilia whitish-grey, dashed with dark grey at
the nervures. Hind wings short but elongated, and rather
pointed at the apex; rest of the hind margin slightly
sinuous; dark grey, paler or whitish at the base, with a
central whitish transverse stripe; cilia white. Female with
the abdomen decidedly stouter, and the hind wings more
uniformly smoky-grey ; otherwise similar.

Underside pale smoky-grey, with two narrow whitish
transverse bands on the fore and hind wings, followed in
each case by a darker grey parallel band, darkest on the
costa; cilia whitish, spotted in the fore wings with dark
erey ; body and legs whitish-brown.

Variable in the ground colour, and in the depth of colour
of the markings. In the South of England the ground colour
is usually greenish-grey ; pale slate-grey in the Hastern
counties; in Scotland more shaggy in appearance, with dark
greenish-grey or blackish-grey ground colour, and the mark-

CYMATOPHORIDA. 209

ings greatly intensified, so that the whole fore-wings are
almost completely occupied by the broadly clouded blackish
transverse lines, except that the orbicular stigma becomes paler
and much more distinct. In the Midlands, and especially at
Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, all these characters become
mixed together, except that of the distinct orbicular stigma ;
indeed it, in many specimens, coalesces with the reniform,
forming a long greenish blotch in the discal cell. Such
specimens are in Dr. Freer’s collection, and others combin-
ing the very dark cross-lines with pale greenish or slate
ground colour, or suffused with dark slate-grey, or even
faintly tinged with a sort of peach-bloom. Mr. 8. J. Capper
has dark northern specimens with the orbicular stigma white ;
Mr. 8. Stevens pale grey examples curiously tinged with
buff; and in the cabinet of the late Mr. Bond is a specimen
of a pale greenish-grey almost devoid of markings.
On the wing in March and sometimes in April.

Larva plump, slightly flattened, head rather small, with
the lobes rounded and distinct, light brown; body dark
green, greenish-black, or yellowish-green, rather translucent ;
second segment with two conspicuous black dorsal spots, and
smaller ones at the sides ; along the subdorsal region is a row
of black spots, one on each segment, on each side; and a row
of smaller black spots below them, marking the spiracles;
the usual tubercular dots distinctly white; undersurface and
legs pale greenish or yellowish.

June and July on birch, sometimes on birch trees, but
more partial to the bushes which are so plentiful on sandy
commons and on hills. In the daytime remaining in a
habitation formed by spinning together leaves, often into a
rather conical shape, or into a nest; coming out at night
to feed.

Pura moderately stout, but abdominal segments rapidly
tapering; thorax and wing-covers abundantly pitted and
ridged with minute and delicate sculpture ; colour red-brown;

VOL, IL, O

210 LEPIDOPTERA.

anal segment black, much thickened, with a distinct rim cut
into sections along its anterior edge; anal spike thick at the
base, tapering, long, and curved. In a slight cocoon under
moss, or at the roots of grass at the foot of a tree, or under
the surface of the ground. In this stage through the latter
part of the summer, the autumn and winter; sometimes
lying over a second winter—this is said to be very frequently
the case in Scotland.

The moth rests in the daytime, occasionally, on trunks,
more frequently on branches or even twigs of birch trees,
but far more usually upon stunted birch bushes, the more
stunted the better, and half a dozen specimens may some-
times be picked off a little bush not more than a foot high,
where they stick about anywhere on the small branches. On
the larger birch bushes the favourite spot is on the main
stem, where it throws off a branch or two, and here appears
a very, curious instance of natural mimicry. The birch bushes
have upon their stems small patches of grey lichen, and to one
of these patches of lichen the greenish-grey moth with its
dark lines and its curiously crested shoulders and thorax
bears an extraordinary resemblance.

It has been occasionally taken flying in bright sunshine,
but this is not its usual habit. It flies at dusk, and later in
the night, and has been taken at sugar, but is said to prefer
the sap exuding from a wound in a birch tree.

Usually found on open hill sides and commons where birch
crows freely, but not absent from birch woods, and common
in such suitable places, in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hants,
Dorset and Berks; rather scarce in most parts of the Eastern
Counties, but common near King’s Lynn and in Lincolnshire ;
plentiful at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, and in other parts
of that county and Derbyshire; rare in Devon; scarce in
Somerset, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Leicestershire ;
much more frequent in Worcestershire, Herefordshire,
Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire, indeed common on the

CYMATOPHORIDA. PA

mosses. Further north in England I find no record. In
Scotland it is common, and very dark in Perthshire; very
much scarcer in the Eastern districts, and only recently
noticed, by Mr. Wm. Evans of Edinburgh, at Wemyss and else-
where in Fife; further north it has been met with even to
Moray, but in the western districts only to Dunoon and
Renfrew. In Ireland the late Mr. EH. Birchall recorded it as
common, but this has not been confirmed. It is, however,
found occasionally, by Mr. D. C. Campbell, at Londonderry,
and Colonel Partridge has met with it at Enniskillen; it 1s
difficult therefore to believe it absent from other suitable
localities. Abroad it is found throughout Northern Europe,
and much of Central Europe, also in Northern Italy and
Southern and Hastern Russia.

3. Asphalia ridens, /ab.—Expanse 14 to 14 inch.
Antennee yellow; thorax stout; fore wings narrow, blunt,
pale green or greenish-white, mottled with black and with a
broad dark central band.

Antenne thick, almost broad, strongly ridged, naked,
brownish-yellow ; eyes densely set with minute hairs; lashes
at the back, but obscured by erect head-scales; head grey,
barred and spotted with black; thorax blackish; shoulder
lappets edged with white on the inner side; crest distinct
and barred with white and black; fascicles broad and very
spreading, yellowish in the middle, outwardly white;
abdomen light brown barred with whitish, lateral tufts white,
anal tuft brown. Fore wings narrow; costa straight to
near the apex, where it is slighthy curved; apex bluntly
angulated; hind margin rounded, very little oblique;
dorsal margin gracefully curved. Ground colour white,
silvery white, greenish-white, pale green, or bright green,
much mottled with black; basal line black, angulated,
sharply defined, and outside it a large black or brownish
cloud occupying the space near the base of the dorsal margin;
remaining basal space occupied with angulated black streaks

212 LEPIDOPTERA.

or an extension of the dark cloud; first line black, curved,
duplicated; second line also double, black, oblique; the
whole space between the first and second lines occupied by a
very broad, mottled, black and green, black and grey, or dull
blackish, central band, in which are placed a small, oblique
orbicular stigma, and a minute oval reniform stigma, both
whitish edged with black. Beyond the second line is a
similar, more distinct, and much indented, black line,
followed by a row of black wedges, and a long, black,
indented, curved streak which runs to the apex. Along the
hind margin is a very pretty row of deep black crescents, of
which the united extremities project into the cilia, which
are whitish; there forming black wedges. Hind wings
rather short, with rounded apex, and sinuous hind margin ;
whitish; nervures and hind margin brown; cilia white.
Temale with stouter body, and hind wings a little browner
toward the hind margin, otherwise accurately similar.

Underside white and shining, with the nervures of all the
wings grey, and a broad grey cloud across the central area of
the fore wings; cilia spotted with black; body and legs brown.

Always variable, as already described, in ground colour
and markings, but especially the latter, which changing from
their general sharpness and distinctness, become, in some
specimens, altogether softened and obscured, even so far as
to make the whole fore wings of a dull blackish-green; yet
it is always an exceedingly pretty insect. This variation
appears to be normal and constant, and by no means local or
climatal, the same extreme or medium forms being found in
the most widely distant localities. Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher
has a specimen wholly black, except some very faint greenish
markings toward the base and hind margin.

On the wing in April and sometimes in the beginning of

May.

Larva elongate, cylindrical, skin rather dull and wrinkled,
spots raised; head bifid, the lobes rounded, red-brown, the

CYMATOPHORIDE, 213

lower portions of the lobes and face ochreous ; mouth black
and with a black spot on each side; body yellow, shading
into greenish-yellow on the sides; two ill-defined deeper dull
greenish sub-dorsal stripes; usual spots dull white, large and
prominent; spiracles very pale brown; a black lateral dot
above those on the second segment. (C. Fenn.)

May, June, July, on oak, drawing together a leaf or a lobe
of a leaf, partially, with silk, and sheltering through the day
on the underside, but coming out at night to feed. The
habitation is not so closely drawn together as in previous
species, and the larva is readily shaken out of it by beating,
but it is also quite easily discovered by looking upward at the
outside leaves of the high oak bushes, when the larva may be
seen half-curled under the concave leaf.

Pura stout, wrinkled, tapering considerably ; anal extremity
furnished with a long double-hooked spike ; incisions deeply
cleft. Dull red, not highly polished; in a compact silken
cocoon among moss or rubbish adhering to the trunk of a
tree or under the surface of the ground. (C.Fenn.) In this
state through the winter and not unfrequently during more
than one year.

The moth may occasionally be found sitting on the trunk
of an oak tree in the daytime, but its colour and markings
mimic so closely the lichen and moss on the trunks that it
may probably be often overlooked. It appears to be rarely if
ever taken at sugar, or at exuding sap, and its habits are very
obscure, though it is known to fly at night. The vast majority
of specimens in collections are reared from the larva or pupa.

Apparently confined to woods and wooded districts, and
found, though not commonly, in Surrey, Sussex, Hants,
Berks, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Gloucestershire,
Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Probably more frequent
in South Wales, since I have found the larva rather commonly
in a large wood in Pembrokeshire. Very scarce in the
Eastern Counties and almost absent from the Midlands,

214 LEPIDOPTERA.

though found rarely in North Staffordshire; also rare or
extremely local in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumberland.
I have no knowledge of its occurrence in Scotland or Ireland.
Abroad it is not very widely distributed, but is found in most
parts of Central Europe and in Southern France, Denmark
and Portugal.

Family 2. TRIFIDZK.

Fore wings usually of fairly even width, often narrow,
hind wings rounded behind, vein 5 arising alone from the
cross-bar, slender and often hardly distinguishable, causing
little or no protrusion at the hind margin.

An extensive and rather vaguely defined family, comprising
the vast majority of the British Noctuina, various in the
structure of antennze, of eyes, and of larvae, so much so as
to forbid exact definition in these respects.

Pup& usually rather cylindrical; abdominal segments not
rapidly tapering ; surface glossy.

Genus 1. DIPHTHERA.

Antennz simple, ciliated; eyes naked, without lashes;
thorax strongly crested ; abdomen rather slender, crested on
almost every segment; fore wings rather short and broad.
We have but one species.

1. D. Orion, Hsp.—Expanse 1} inch. Collar black; fore
wines bright green, with white clouds and black cross-stripes ;
hind wings dark grey with white marginal spots; abdomen
rather slender.

Antenne rather short, flattened, minutely ciliated, light
brown in front, back of shaft white; eyes naked, without
lashes; palpi black, with dense tufts of white scales in front ;
head also densely tufted in front, green; tufts at bases of
antenne whitish; thorax only moderately stout, rounded,

TRIFIDZ. 215

distinctly crested on the top and at the back, and the
shoulder lappets raised; collar deep black; a broad deep
black bar across each section of the upper crest, the upper
edge of the back crest, and the edges of the shoulder lappets ;
remaining surface of the thorax bright green, shaded with
white ; fascicles very short, as though cut: off, white ; abdomen
light grey, with a black bar across the basal portion of each
segment except the last, a portion of the black scales obliquely
raised on each into a tuft, those on the third and fourth
forming conspicuous crests, the rest only raised in some
specimens ; all the crests minutely tipped with white, and
behind them the lower part of each segment is edged with
white; lateral tufts spreading, grey and black; anal tuft
narrow, mixed black and white. Fore wings rather broad ;
costa nearly straight; apex and hind margin decidedly
rounded; anal angle well marked; dorsal margin gently
undulated ; colour bright green with bright white spots, or
small clouds, along the costa and the subcostal and median
nervures; near the base is a deep black angulated and
indented transverse stripe; a second in the middle of the
wing, oblique, disconnected, and consisting of a series of bent
black streaks and lines, a broadly hooked black streak near
the costa being conspicuous; a third deep black transverse
stripe, repeatedly angulated and thickened in the outer angles,
lies near the hind margin, still nearer to which is a central
black spot and then a series of black dots edged inside with
white; cilia green, broadly barred or chequered with black.
(When freshly emerged the white spots on the median
nervure are decidedly tinged with rosy.)

Hind wings dark grey, with a clouded whitish partial
transverse band beyond the middle, which becomes slender
and rather silvery-white near the anal angle, where it touches
a black blotch divided by two white bars; cilia white, with
double black dashes.

Female quite similar, but with abdomen a little shorter.

Underside of the fore wings smoky-blackish, shading off

216 LEPIDOPTERA.

paler toward the dorsal margin, and having the costal margin
white, barred with black; cilia white, spotted with black ;
hind wings very pretty, clear shining white, with a transverse
bar half-way across the middle, enclosing a black central
spot ; beyond this a slender, much curved and scalloped black
line, followed by a much broader black curved transverse
stripe, scalloped at its edges; hind margin and cilia white
spotted with black ; body and legs blackish, the latter tufted
and barred in front with white.

A singularly beautiful species and very constant in colour
and markings, except that in some specimens the black
sections of the central stripe of the fore wings are more
slender and rather more widely separated from each other,
and the black blotches on the third stripe are shaded with
purplish brown; while in others small additional black
streaks present themselves in series, representing two more
transverse lines, in the green spaces; these also have the
white spots more than usually tinged with pink. In Mr.
W. H. B. Fletcher’s collection is a very large specimen having
all the black markings very strongly accentuated, the trans-
verse stripe nearest the hind margin unusually broad and
intensely black. This species has an extraordinary resem-
blance in colour and markings to an autumnal species, Charip-
tera aprilina, but may be known by its black collar—that of
the latter being green—and by its more slender body.

On the wing in June.

Larva moderately stout, of nearly uniform width, but
tapering a little toward the anal segment, which is rounded
off at the back ; head broad, a little flattened in front, lobes
broadly rounded ; second and third segments rather short.
Head shining, black at the top of each lobe, light yellow,
thickly spotted with black below; dorsal region blackish-
olive on the second and third segments, blue-black on the
fourth, fifth to twelfth deep velvety black, anal segment drab.
A large broad bright light yellow transverse blotch lies on the

TRIFIDZ. 217,

back of the fifth, seventh and tenth segments, and strikingly
relieves the velvety black ground colour. ‘The subdorsal
stripe is a broken series of pale yellow spots, and is followed
by two other broken series of similar spots; sides olive-drab,
with three longitudinal yellowish or greyish-yellow stripes,
the middle one containing the spiracles, which are oval,
blackish, and ringed with yellow. On each body-segment is
a transverse row of ten bright red raised spots, bearing
fascicles of rather long light brown hairs; but in the yellow
blotches these spots are also yellow, with brown hairs. The
subdorsal spots on the twelfth segment are greatly enlarged ;
on the back of the fourth they form transverse streaks at the
back of the red spots. On the second segment is a narrow
transverse bar of shining blackish, bearing a series of four
red warts. The pattern on the anterior segments is rather
obscured by the long hairs, of which those in front project
over the head. Undersurface drab, more dusky in front;
legs and prolegs drab. (Condensed from Buckler.)

Dr. Chapman says that the very young larva presents a
character in the small size, and weakness of the eleventh
segment, and its less conspicuous hairs, which agrees closely
with that found in the genus Acronycta. It is ‘‘a very
delicate whitish scrap, whose first duty is to eat up as much as
its neighbours permit of its ege-shell.” It seems to linger
about, waiting for the last of the batch to hatch out before
beginning to attack its regular diet, but very soon shows a
greenish colour after commencing to eat. Feeding is begun
gregariously, all the larvee from the batch of eggs ranging
themselves side by side and marching forward exactly in line,
eating only the parenchyma or flesh of the leaf and leaving
the upper surface and even the smallest ribs. Its raised
spots or tubercles are large and conspicuous, each bearing a
single hair, except those above the spiracles, which have three
each. As the larva grows it gradually assumes colour, becom-
ing after the first moult creamy yellow, with red-brown
dorsal and subdorsal lines; the raised spots now carry more

218 LEPIDOPTERA.

hairs. Up to‘this time the head is almost colourless, but
after the second moult it becomes black with green radial
markings, and is deeply cleft and rather angular; the body
now begins to assume the adult colouring. After the third
moult it is a red larva with black and yellow markings, a
black hump on the sixth segment, with two yellow dots behind,
a yellow raised patch on the fifth, seventh and tenth, and a
small black hump on the twelfth, on each side of which is a
conspicuous yellowish-white patch ; the sides are marked with
several alternate lines of yellow and fuscous, and the lower
parts are still very pale, delicate, and transparent. The hairs
are more numerous and whitish, but as it advances toward
full growth they sometimes become more rufous, and are still
more plentiful and conspicuous, especially toward the head,
over which they hang abundantly, ‘‘Skye-terrier fashion.”
At all stages the head is large, but towards full growth the
second segment becomes much contracted, being reduced on
the back to an exceedingly narrow black collar with two
white transverse lines, hard to see under the thick mass of
hairs projecting forward. (Condensed from Dr. Chapman’s
memoir “ Acronycta and its allies.”)

July to September, on oak; feeding exposed by day, and
loving the hottest sunshine. This beautiful larva strikingly
reminds one of that of Liparis salicis.

Pura stout, shining, very round, thickest in the middle;
wing-cases full; limb-cases less conspicuous; abdomen
tapering rather rapidly; anal extremity flat at the apex,
with six short thick recurved hooks ; incisions of segments
toothed. Colour deep shining mahogany brown. In an oval
compact silken cocoon, the upper end left almost open;
placed immediately below the surface of the ground. Some-
times the cocoon is formed partly of gnawed bark or rotten
wood. In this state through the winter, and sometimes
through another year.

‘The moth may occasionally be found, in its very restricted

TRIFIDZ. 219

localities, sitting on the trunk or a branch of an oak in the
day time, though protected from a casual glance by the
wonderful similarity of its green and black colouring to a
patch of green lichen. It flies at dusk, and comes willingly
to sugar on the trunks of oak trees, especially on windy
nights; yet is very shy and restless, and easily disturbed.
Its time of flight is known to last till midnight. Found only
in oak woods, and exceedingly local ; probably more frequent
in the New Forest, Hants, than in any other place in these
islands, and there, in some seasons, almost common. Also
in woods near Hailsham, Brighton, and Hastings, Sussex ;
Isle of Wight and Forest of Bere, Hants; in wooded valleys
under Dartmoor, towards Plymouth, Devon; formerly at
Kast Looe, Cornwall; and in the Hastern Counties near
Ipswich and Colchester; also recorded by Mr. W. M.
Crowfoot, of Beccles, in South Norfolk. I know of no other
certain localities for it in the United Kingdom; but abroad
its distribution is very wide—all over Central Europe,
Northern Italy, Northern Europe (except the coldest por-
tions), India, China, Japan, Northern Asia. It is the only
European representative of a small group of most beautiful
species, most of them of a brilliant green with black mark-
ings, and inhabiting Asia and North America.

Genus 2. ACRONYCTA.

Antenne simple or nearly so, ciliated; eyes naked, with
lashes at the back, but nearly prostrate among the long scales ;
head tufted ; thorax thickly covered with somewhat raised long
scales, obscurely crested at the back, and with the shoulder
lappets rather uplifted; abdomen crested, sometimes ob-
scurely, the crests varying in number from one to five, and
in some species very fugitive. Fore wings elongated, in most
cases rather pointed, usually of some shade of grey, and with
black transverse lines and deep black longitudinal streaks ;
hind wings nearly unicolorous; vein 5 variable but usually
weak, always arising from the cross-bar.

220) | LEPIDOPTERA.

Larva hairy, but differing in appearance in an extra-
ordinary manner—cylindrical, or humped, or with a long
tubercle; hairs placed singly or in dense tufts, or silken and
plentiful all over the body, or short and downy. Feeding on
leaves of trees, shrubs, or low plants.

Pur presenting several types, in strong tough cocoons or
in holes in woody substances,

The extraordinary divergence in form and in the arrange-
ment and extent of hairy covering among the larve of the
species of this genus has led to the bestowal of a quite un-
usual amount of attention upon it, and even to proposals for
its dispersal into various families—Arctiide, Liparide,
Notodontidee, as well as among the Noctuide. But the
researches of Dr. T. A. Chapman have shown that these
extraordinary distinctions, visible in the well-grown, or full-
grown, larvae, are by no means observable in them in their
earlier stages, and that in the infant larve, as in the perfect
insects, there is a very close relation between the species.
His minutely structural examination of the pupe of the
various species has resulted in a proposal to divide the British
species of the genus into three groups, or sub-genera, for which
he has proposed the names of “ Viminia,” to inelude awricoma,
myrice (euphorbie), menyanthedis, rumicis, and Arsilonche
venosa,; “ Cuspidia,’ to consist of psi, tridens, strigosa, alna,
megacephala, leporina and aceris; and ‘* Bisulcia,” for the
somewhat aberrant ligustri.

The details of structure given by him are of extreme
interest, and in any classification founded upon pupal
characters, his divisions would necessarily be adopted. I
think no excuse necessary for devoting a little space to these
details.

In the first group—Viminia—named from the structure
of the pupal segments, which appear hooped like the willow-
hoops of a barrel, the pupa is of very even thickness to the
middie of the abdominal segments, whence it tapers off

TRIFIDE. 221

extremely suddenly, the three. segments 8, 9 and 10 having,
very distinctly, the raised hoop-like ridges in question. Dr.
Chapman says: “The pupe are black, or nearly so, of a
rough, wrinkled, and warty surface; the free abdominal
segments—9 and 10—are as wide, or even wider, than those
in front of them, the tapering to the tail being done in the
remaining fixed segments—l1 to 13—giving a peculiar
squareness to the pupa. There is a double nodule between
the eyes ; the posterior margin of each segment, most marked
in 9 and 10, has a raised band just like those barrel hoops
that are made of a branch split and with the bark left on,
whose smooth surface contrasts with the roughness of the
rest of the segments. The ‘anal armature is a projection
with somewhat quadrangular termination, having the points
or spines nearly or quite obsolete, but clothed with a brush
of stiff brown bristles.” The pupa is enclosed in a cocoon
of tough whitish silk, fairly copious in amount, but in one
simple layer, usually clothed with fragments of grass, twigs,
leaves, &c., and often placed against a stump, stone, or post.
“The young larva is of typical Acronycta form and colour,
in all the five British species being very nearly alike, and
very close to the newly hatched larva of psi and tridens, but
differing from other groups in haying three or more hairs on
the anterior trapezoidal tubercles” (raised spots). The eggs
are laid in groups, usually in a very regular manner, im-
bricated, that is, in regular rows overlapping each other, an
arrangement which their flatness permits.

In the second group—Cuspidia—(cuspis, a spine) the
pupze are characterised by a peculiar arrangement of long
terminal spines. ‘The pupa is again the most distinctive
stage of the group; it is of the ordinary Noctua, smooth,
brown, brittle-looking, semi-transparent, chitinous material ;
it tapers regularly from the thickest part of the thorax to
the terminal segment, which is somewhat rounded to finish
with; and the sculpturing, instead of being raised points,
consists of the ordinary minute pits. The anal armature con-

222 LEPIDOPTERA.

sists of a system of spines, of which there are a dorsal and a
ventral series. I presume, strictly, all are dorsal, as being
dorsal to the cloacal aperture, but in relation to each other
these groups may be most simply so described. The dorsal
set consists of two spines, one on either side, but not far
from the middle line; only in aceris do these tend to be
multiplied, apparently by being split up, rather than by
others being developed. The ventral set is more variable,
and consists of three or more spines on either side. These
pup are not contained in a silken cocoon, but in cavities
formed by the larvee in rotten wood, bark, &. Some, as psi
and tridens, use rather more silk and will spin up in deédris,
or even go down into earth if no other resource is available,
whilst aceris, though loving some dead loose bark or such
material, spins an elaborate cocoou almost anywhere.” ‘‘ The
newly hatched larvee always have the eleventh segment pale.”
“Tn nearly all the species the anterior trapezoidal tubercles
have only one bristle, but two occur in one or two species.”
“The full-grown larva is in each species a law to itself, but
where the larva is hairy, as in leporina and aceris, the hairs
arise chiefly from the general surface, and the tubercles, as
bases for bundles of hairs, are not easily distinguished, whilst
in the non-hairy species, such as ali, each tubercle has one
bristle.” ‘‘ In this section the eggs are always laid separately,
and, so far as I know, in the wild state, are always laid
solitarily. They are not quite so flat as those of
Viminia.”

In the third group— Bisulcia—< (bis, twice; sulcus, a furrow)
from the double depression that crosses the back of each
segment of the pupa.” “ The pupa is thick and squat, and has
two transverse depressions on the dorsum of each segment ;
the anal armature consists of short points. The cocoon is of
a hard, tough, but somewhat brittle silk, nearly black in
colour, and with always some indication of an opening at one
end, and sometimes an almost distinct line of division form-
ing a valve for the emergence of the moth.” ‘The young larva

TRIFIDZ. 223

is pale throughout, with only one bristle on each tubercle.”
“The egg is laid solitarily and is indeed very much like that
of pst.”

In curious contrast to this division into three groups
mainly by the structure of the pupa, is the result of examina-
tion of the “anal appendices,” ‘‘ anal armature,” or “ appen-
dices ancillary to generation,” as the curious structure of
claspers in the anal segment of the male moth is variously
entitled. Mr. IF. N. Pierce, who has examined this structure
in most of the species, with great care and minuteness,
informs me that by it the genus is divisible into three dis-
tinct groups: Ist, ¢ridens, psi, strigosa, alni, menyanthedis,
rumicis and myrice (ewphorbie), all of which show very
similar structure ; 2nd, leporina, aceris, and ligustri, which
again are very similar; and 8rd, megacephala, which is very
distinct from all the rest, ‘‘and would probably belong to
another genus.” Another division of the genus has reference
to a point to which I have already adyerted—the presence or
absence of dorsal crests on the abdominal segments ; but in it
sufficient allowance does not seem to have been made for the
fugitive nature of these crests or tufts, in certain species. On
the whole, it appears best to include all the grey species, as
was done by Mr. Stainton, in the genus Acronycta.

A table of the species may be useful.

A. Forewings whitish or pale grey.
B. A black < before the anal angle. leporina.
B*. A sharp black dagger before the anal angle.
pst, tridens.
B®. An obscure black dagger before the anal angle.
C. Second line distinct; orb. stig. minute; ren. stig.
short. menyanthedis.
C *. Second line clouded and obscure ; ren. stig. elongated.
auricoma.
B*, A simple black streak running into the anal angle.
D. Dorsal half of wing black. aln.

224 LEPIDOPTERA.

E. The black streak continued in sections to base of

wing. strigosa.
A*. Forewings much mottled or marbled with grey or
black.
F. Mottled light grey; second line white, edged with
black. aceris.
F*. Mottled dark grey; a pale blotch beyond ren. stig.
megacephala.
F 3. Mottled and clouded with black; two white spots
before anal angle. rumers,
F +, Mottled olive and black, a large pale cloud beyond
ren. stig. ligustrt.
F'®, Mottled dark slate-grey. cuphorhie.

1. A. leporina, Z.—Expanse 14 to 1? inch. Fore wings
white or grey with a black bar in the middle of the costa, a
black < near the anal angle, and broken indications of black
transverse lines.

Antenne of the male rather stout, simple, naked, blackish,
with the back of the shaft white; head white; thorax covered
with long, loose, white, or light grey scales ; shoulder-lappets
rather raised; at the back is a slight crest of raised scales,
tipped with dark grey; a sharply defined black streak runs
from the side of the head to the base of the fore wing; fas-
cicles long, white; abdomen dark grey, thinly covered with
white scales, those on the dorsal ridge raised into one or more
oblique tufts or crests; lateral and anal tufts white. Fore
wings elongated and rather triangular; costa straight to near
the apex, where it becomes arched ; avex rather pointed ; hind
margin very oblique, but very slightly curved; anal angle
distinct; dorsal margin straight to near the base; colour
white, greyish-white, or creamy white; a small black streak
lies along the base of the costa; another, longer, from the
middle of the base lies horizontally below the median nervure ;
the first line is only indicated by a black spot in the costa,
and another opposite to it in the middle of the wing; the

TRIFIDA. 225

second line, rather far beyond the middle of the wing, is very
oblique, almost parallel with the hind margin, and composed
of a series of indistinct blackish curves, but near the anal
angle forms a broad black V-like marking; in the middle of
the costa is a nearly perpendicular thick black streak,
continued down the anterior edge of the reniform stigma,
which otherwise is hardly perceptible; beyond this streak is
a small black costal spot; along the hind margin a row of
black spots or dots between the nervures ; cilia white. Hind
wings clear snowy-white ; nervures faintly tinged with brown ;
cilia white. Female slightly larger, with the body stouter ;
otherwise similar.

Underside white, the nervures of all the wings faintly
brownish, and each wing with a more or less distinct central
black spot; hind margin of the fore wings spotted with
black ; body and legs white.

Variable, the variations being somewhat local or climatal.
The typical form described above is that usually found in the
southern counties of England, though accompanied occa-
sionally by specimens much dusted with dark grey or slate-
grey and with the apical portions of the nervures grey, a
band outside the second transverse line being sometimes
especially dark; along with this darkening of the ground
colour, the transverse lines are usually blacker, more distinct
and more complete; the black central streak from the costa
is also thicker, and that portion of it at the back of the
reniform stigma often accompanied by a black mark at the
other side of the stigma. In the Hastern Counties these
darker forms appear almost to exclude the type, and assume
still stronger variations. Mr. F. J. Hanbury has a specimen
taken in Norfolk, in which the thorax and fore wings are
suffused with very coarse dark grey atoms, not of a slate
tinge, but singularly dark ; and specimens which | took in a
marsh near Norwich have the basal area much dusted with
black, and the whole hinder area beyond the second line

suffused with slate-grey. These grey forms were at one time
VOL, III. P

226 LEPIDOPTERA.

looked upon as a distinct species, under the name of brady-
porina. They seem to prevail in the Western and Midland
districts and also in the North, but so far as I am aware are
not anywhere much darker in general colour than those from
Norfolk. In Mr. C. J. Wainwright’s collection is a Warwick-
shire specimen, wholly dark grey without distinct markings.
In the mosses of Lancashire and Yorkshire, where the ground
colour is of a smoky-grey or slate-grey, the usual black
markings are more obscure. The most curious specimen
known to me is whitish on one fore wing, dark grey on the
other. It is in the collection of the late Mr. Bond. Irish
specimens are reported to be usually white or pale grey.
One in the collection of the Rev. W. W. Flemyng of Portlaw
is uniformly greyish-white, except the black perpendicular
streak in the middle of the costa, which is sharply marked.
In some parts of Scotland, as around Loch Laggan, it has
been found beautifully white, with dark markings.

On the wing in May and June, in more northern districts
sometimes in July. There is but a single generation in the
year.

LARVA nearly cylindrical, thickest at the seventh to ninth
segments, rather truncate at the tail. Colour pale apple-green
with no markings, spiracles white, with a fine black line, head
and legs paler green, labrum and palpi nearly white, darker
beneath. The surface is uniformly clothed with long,
perfectly white hairs, which stand erect for about one-twelfth
of an inch of their length and then bend down parallel to the
larval surface for alength of about one-fifth of an inch; thus
forming a continuous coat or surface at the distance of one-
twelfth of an inch from the larva. Very inconspicuous are
some black hairs, two to three on each anterior trapezoidal
raised spot, one to each posterior, a little longer on the anal
seoment, where they mix with the white hairs. This form is
that usually found in the South. In the North the dominant
form appears to be that which has a yellow skin and yellow

TRIFIDZ. 227

hairs ; it has distinct chocolate bands down the back and side,
indistinct as to outline, but pronounced as to tint; it is also
olive-brown beneath; the head has much black ; and on the
back, especially on segments five, seven, eight, nine, and
twelve, are black tufts rising above the level of the yellow
hairs. The long hairs after being bent down parallel to the
larval surface are arranged exactly as if they had been
brushed smoothly, but they are always brushed forward
on the right side, backward on the left—an instance
of bilateral asymmetry which is extremely rare among
insects.

The infant larva is white and brown alternately, segments
four and five, seven, eight, nine, and the two last being dark,
head black ; second segment with a distinct black plate; the
raised spots, which are conspicuous and mostly black or
blackish, have each but one or two hairs ; these are long, black,
and longest on the front segments. When half grown the
alternation of pale and dark colouring has disappeared, the
back of most of the segments has become very dark, almost
black, and there are broad purplish and yellow stripes down
the sides, but these colours are much hidden by the hairs,
which are longer, far more abundant, and of a yellow colour;
head still black, under-surface fuscous. It is not until the
fourth moult that the adult colouring is assumed. (Con-
densed from the elaborate memoir of Dr. Chapman).

The southern form of the larva—green with white hairs—
is found very frequently upon alder, but most certainly also
upon birch ; the yellow and more northern form appears to be
more attached to birch; but this may arise from the far greater
abundance and wider distribution of birch than of alder. Dr.
Freer finds both forms on birch at Cannock Chase, the yellow
usually the later in the year—that is in the more slow-
feeding larvee probably. Other observers have supposed the
yellowness to be a change occurring before the larva spins up,
but probably without sufficient reason—the change at this
season being to a dirty greenish, with the hairs smoky black.

228 LEPIDOPTERA.

The protection afforded by the curious form of the hairs in
this larva is most interesting. When on the trunk of a tree
it looks like a twisted downy feather, and on a leaf the same
resemblance is kept up to some extent. Dr. Chapman,
however, points out a quite different protective resemblance.
He says: ‘My observations were made and repeated many
times on the green, white-haired larva occurring on alder;
this larva sits somewhat curled round, near the middle of the
underside of a leaf. Looking down from above, it is absolutely
hidden ; looking up from beneath, it ought to be very evident;
but this is far from being the case. In looking up from
below through the foliage of an alder tree, most of the lower
leaves are in the shade of the upper ones, but here and there
a gleam of light falls through on to a portion of a leaf, and
gives it quite a different tone and appearance as seen from
beneath. A larva of /eporina seated beneath an unilluminated
leaf precisely resembles one of these patches. I have several
times missed a larva till I have looked three or four times,
and have also fancied I saw a larva, when none was there.”

July to September or even October; on alder and birch,
but occasionally on oak, aspen, black poplar, and Canadian
poplar.

Pupa of ordinary form, broadest from the fifth to ninth
segments, then tapering off; spiracles distinctly marked ;
blackish-brown, paler beneath ; wing’ cases with raised dark
green nervures. Ina deep burrow bored by the larva into
rotten wood, dead bark, or the pith of bramble or elder ; the
entrance closed by a covering of tough silk, with which the
larval hairs are interwoven. In this state through the winter,
and not unfrequently through two or more years.

The moth sits in the daytime on the trunk or branch of a
tree—usually alder or birch—and often at a height of fifteen
or twenty feet; in other cases close to the ground or on a
fern frond or other plant under the tree. It flies at early
dusk, and comes willingly to sugar, sometimes so early that

TRIFIDA. 229

it may be captured without the aid of a lantern. It settles
down with closed wings to feed, and is captured with perfect
ease in this manner, but is rarely taken on the wing. Never
an abundant species, but very widely distributed, apparently
occurring in woodland districts, marshes, and heaths on which
birch grows, throughout the Southern and Eastern counties
of England, and in some of the Western and Midland
counties, since I have records from Devon, Somerset,
Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire Warwickshire,
Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lanca-
shire, most parts of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Cumberland.
In Wales it is found in Glamorganshire and Carmarthenshire,
and can hardly be absent from the birch woods of North
Wales. Widely distributed, but scarce, in Scotland; found
in Ayrshire, at Kilmun and Dunoon in the Clyde District ;
in Argyleshire, Perthshire; in Eastern districts to Ross and
Moray; and even more commonly in Sutherlandshire. Confined
apparently to the southern half of Ireland, Dublin, Wicklow,
Waterford, Kerry, and Galway. Abroad it extends through-
out Central Hurope, Northern Europe except the coldest
portions, Northern Italy, Southern Russia, and Siberia.

2. A. aceris, Z.—Expanse 1} to 12 inch. Fore wings
pale grey, much mottled with darker grey; second line
white ; hind wings white with blackish nervures.

Antenne of the male stout, ribbed, naked, greyish-brown ;
head pale grey; thorax robust, pale grey dusted with dark
grey; shoulder lappets rather raised; at the back of the
thorax is an indistinct crest; fascicles of scales from the
back, dense, white ; abdomen white, faintly dusted with dark
grey ; the first three segments covered with loose hair-scales,
the central dorsal portion of which is raised into obscure
crests and tipped with dark grey. Fore wings stoutly built,
broadly triangular, conspicuously broader and more ample
than in the other species of the genus; costal margin very
slightly curved, apex bluntly angulated; hind margin long,

230 LEPIDOPTERA.

oblique, gently rounded, and slightly excavated before the
anal angle ; dorsal margin straight and rather short ; greyish-
white, almost wholly covered with mottled markings composed
of dark grey or blackish atoms; from the middle of the base
is a slender, rather long black line throwing off three rather
small curved branches, two of them into the first transverse
line, which is double, blackish, indistinct, and much indented;
the second line lies far beyond the middle and is deeply
toothed, notched, and scalloped, white, edged on both sides
with dark grey ; nervures in the middle area, and also some
oblique costal streaks, dark grey; orbicular stigma nearly
round, pale grey, ringed with black; reniform stigma grey,
indistinct, edged and clouded with black; hind margin
spotted with black; cilia white, scalloped and indented.
Hind wings clear white; the nervures dusted with blackish
and forming black lines beyond the middle; margin rather
crenulated; cilia sinuous, white. Female similar except
that the nervures of the hind wings are blacker, there is
usually some grey clouding between them, toward the margin,
and in most instances a cloudy grey transverse line or stripe
beyond the middle.

Underside white; fore wings with grey nervures beyond
the middle, and with three blackish lines from the costa;
cilia streaked with black. Hind wings tinged with grey
along the front margin ; a row of black dashes on the nervures
indicates a faint transverse stripe ; central spot minute, dark
erey. Body and legs greyish-white.

Usually rather constant in colour and markings, varying
only a little in tint of the grey mottling; the hind marginal
space is, however, often darker or paler than the rest, and a
dark grey band outside the second line is not unfrequent.
A rare variety is nearly unicolorous blackish grey or dark
brown-grey, and in this the white second line is sometimes
obscured. This form was described by Haworth as a
(probably) distinct species under the name of infuscata.

On the wing in June and July.

TRIFIDZA. 231

Larva very hairy, the hairs arranged in long dense tufts
parted down the centre of the back, which is thus left
exposed; sides covered with long hairs; head large, quad-
rate, polished, edges rounded ; bluish-grey, the body entirely
covered, except a parting down the middle of the back, with
long yellowish, bright yellow, orange, or brick-red hairs; a
lozenge or roughly diamond-shaped silvery-white dorsal
spot on each body segment, very conspicuously edged with
black; these spots sometimes confluent on the second to
fourth, and eleventh to thirteenth segments; head hazel-
brown, mottled with dark brown and with a broad distinct
yellowish frontal V; under-surface rather light chocolate
brown; legs dark brown. The dorsal tufts are often
yellow tipped with red, or alternately yellow and red.
(C. Fenn.)

The infant larva as figured and described by Dr. Chapman
presents no resemblance to the adult; its head is very broad
and black, there is a black plate on the second segment; the
hairs, though long, arise singly from the raised spots, and
there is no dorsal division nor any indication of tufts; the
body is, as is the rule in these species, curiously parti-
coloured, segments 2 to 5 being greyish-brown, segment 6
whitish, 7 to 9, brown 10 and 11 whitish, and the remain-
ing two brown, giving it a curious banded aspect, which
continues till it has attained one-third of its growth; when
half-grown tufts of hairs commence to arise from some of the
raised spots, and white markings to appear on the back, the
full adult appearance being assumed at the fifth moult. The
aspect of the full-grown larva, when coiled in its favourite
position under a leaf, or tightly drawn into a ring when
alarmed, the white spots forming a circle, and the large
strong straight tufts of hairs standing out all round, is
exceedingly curious and pretty.

August and September on horse-chestnut, sycamore,
maple, and occasionally oak and birch. When full fed it
may sometimes be seen on the trunks of trees, palings, and

232 LEPIDOPTERA.

even on the ground, doubtless seeking a convenient place in
which to spin up. No larva is more conspicuous.

Pura of the ordinary form, of even thickness to the ninth
seoment, then tapering to the extremity, but with decided
angular ribbing at the spiracular lines. Rich brown, with
darker lines at the margins of the segments, and a dark
dorsal line widened in places as if it were the black line
which in the larva encircles the lozenges. The ninth and
tenth segments often have projections representing the pro-
legs; in some these are so conspicuous as to suggest a con-
tinuance of the larval structure. The boss carrying the anal
armature is abundantly and finely wrinkied, and has a full
armament of spines. In a cocoon formed among loose chips
or dead leaves and moss. The larva does not burrow into
rotten wood or otherwise excavate a cavity. The cocoon is
of loose texture, composed of very pale brownish or nearly
white silk, with the hairs of the larva interwoven, and, inside
this, a more dense cocoon of tough white silk, morsels of
wood being worked into both. (Condensed from Dr, Chap-
man’s memoir.) It also frequently spins up in crevices of
bark. In this state through the winter, occasionally two
winters.

The moth sits openly and conspicuously upon tree trunks
in the daytime, usually upon those with rough bark, oak
trees in woods and at roadsides being especially selected.
It flies at dusk, and comes eagerly to sugar, settling down
quietly to feed, or if but just arrived, will fly round in wide
circles, looking, from its size and pale colour, very con-
spicuous. Not rare in the outskirts of London, and common
in most parts of the more Southern counties, though not
continuing so very far west. Scarce in South Dorset and in
Somerset ; rare in Devon and Cornwall. Generally distributed
and moderately common in the Eastern counties, the Cam-
bridgeshire fen district, and Northamptonshire; rare in
Warwickshire and Herefordshire, and apparently extending

TRIFIDE. 233

no further north, nor have I any record of it in Wales.
Rare in Ireland, but recorded from Galway and Cork.

Abroad it is found nearly all over Europe, except the
coldest regions, also in Asia Minor, Northern India, and
Cashmir.

3. A. megacephala, Schif.—Expanse 14 to 1} inch.
Fore wings dark grey, mottled and spotted with blackish ;
a large pale blotch beyond the stigmata; hind wings white
with black nervures.

Antennz of the male rather slender, simple, naked, grey ;
head dark-grey ; thorax moderately stout, grey, dusted with
black ; shoulder lappets raised, and, with a small crest at the
back of the thorax, tipped with black; abdomen pale grey,
rather smooth, with two or three indistinct and often
prostrate darker dorsal tufts, a strong lateral ridge of tufts,
and a broad anal tuft dotted with black. Fore wings rather
broad, not so triangular as in the last two species; costa
gently curved, apex very bluntly angulated, almost rounded ;
hind margin decidedly rounded, long, and oblique; dorsal
margin rather straight. Grey, softly mottled all over with
dark grey and blackish, and with, when fresh, a delicate
faint pinkish or lilac flush; first line indicated by a double
transverse row of blackish spots; second line more complete,
deep black, indented throughout and expanded near the anal
angle into a considerable cloudy black spot; orbicular stigma
whitish-grey, ringed with black, and tolerably conspicuous ;
reniform stigma very large and ill-defined, forming part of a
large ovate pale blotch; along the costa are several black
spots; cilia grey, broadly spotted with black. Hind wings
short, rounded, shining white, with the nervures grey, more
blackish toward the hind margin, along which is a dusting of
grey; cilia whitish, dashed with grey. Female similar, but
with the hind wings more clouded with grey, especially
toward the dorsal and hind margins.

Underside shining whitish with a grey cloud along the

234 LEPIDOPTERA.

costal half of the fore wings, a black spot on the costa, another
under the reniform stigma, and the nervures grey ; nervures of
the hind wings also greyish, and upon them a series of black
dashes indicating a central transverse stripe; central spot
grey, body and legs whitish.

Usually very constant in colour and markings, but there is
occasional variation in the intensity of the dark colouring of
the forewings and in the size and distinctness of the large
ovate pale blotch, which even in rare instances is no paler
than the rest of the wing. In the collection of the late Mr.
Bond is a specimen of a unicolorous black-grey. The pretty
pinkish or lilac tinge which is sometimes observable, rather
indicates extreme freshness than any variation, and un-
fortunately very soon fades.

On the wing from the end of May to August in a single
generation. So far as I know there is but a single record in
this country of the appearance of specimens of a second
emergence in the year. This occurred at the end of July
1858.

Larva stout, rounded and rather flattened; long whitish
hairs on the sides and on the second and anal segments ; head
large, rounded, slightly bifid, not highly polished. Greyish-
ochreous with three converging waved bands of collected
black dots on the back; spiracular line, and a line above the
black spiracles, waved and composed of an accumulation of
dark grey dots; dorsal spots from the third to twelfth
segments raised and of a reddish-orange colour ; remaining
dots also raised, but of the ground colour; on the eleventh
segment is a large half-oval prominent dorsal patch of a dull
ochreous or greyish-ochreous edged with black, the rounded
portion in front. Head pale bluish-grey, the lobes margined
internally and externally with black, or else black with a
broad pale greyish stripe down each lobe ; mouth black ; legs
and prolegs deep yellow ; under-surface very pale grey, the
centre greenish. (C. Fenn.)

TRIFIDZE. 235

The infant larva has the head black, the general colour
rufous except the third, fourth, and eleventh segments, which
are very pale; the spots are large raised bosses, paler than
the rest of the segment, but without very defined margins.
Hach has one hair, dark at the base, pale at the tip, and of
one half the length of the larva; second segment with a pale
plate; the sides are paler than the back, the eleventh segment
is peculiarly wide and flat and its hairs paler than the rest.
As it grows it becomes more flattened from the tenth to the
thirteenth segments, and a dorsal lozenge of bright yellow
appears on each of the pale segments. After the third
change of skin some approach is made to the appearance of
the full-grown larva; sometimes a yellow patch appears on
the back of many of the segments, and the raised spots
partially change colour to yellow, with some brown or black.
As it grows all the spots become yellow, the dorsal region
blackish, changing on the sides to very light fuscous, and
dotted closely with small yellowish or greenish-white points,
each carrying a minute hair, thus forming a fine pubescence
covering the larva; by this time the tubercular hairs have
become proportionately shorter, and the adult appearance is
gradually assumed. (Condensed from Dr, Chapman.)

August and September on poplar and aspen, also rarely on
sallow. It reposes on the upper side of a leaf and les always
in a curve or bend, with the head placed near or against its
side. Feeds by day and is quite easily seen.

Pupa cylindrical, with tapering abdominal segments of the
usual form. Smooth and shining, limb cases not very distinct ;
reddish, with the dorsal region darker; anal tip rounded,
black, with a number of curved and hooked spines. In a
strong compact cocoon of dark silk mixed with morsels of
wood; under bark or in a chink or crévice, or even in a hole
bored into rotten wood. In this condition through the
winter, sometimes through a second winter. Dr. Chapman
has even found one-half the pupz of a brood to lie over,

= 286 LEPIDOPTERA.

The moth sits in the daytime, conspicuously, on the trunk
of a poplar or aspen, or occasionally on that of some neigh-
bouring tree, or on a paling; but is more restless than its
allies, and will readily fly if the sunshine is hot. It flies at
dusk round the poplars, and is readily attracted to sugar, on
which it settles down, and is easily captured. It is an insect
of ordinary occurrence in all the outskirts of London, and
common throughout the Southern and Eastern counties,
though but local in Devon and Cornwall. In the Midlands,
it is common round Birmingham, and in other parts of
Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Staffordshire, also moder-
ately so in Leicestershire, Herefordshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire,
and South Lancashire ; scarce in the north of that county,
and rather local in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland.
Probably in all suitable parts of Wales, since it may be
found, occasionally, in Pembrokeshire. Local in Scotland,
but found in the southern districts, and in the eastern and
northern portions to Ross and Moray. Always scarce in
Ireland, and apparently not found in the north, but recorded
from Dublin, Wicklow, Westmeath, Galway, Monaghan, and
the coast of Down. Abroad it is generally common through-
out the continent of Hurope except the extreme northern
portions, also in Siberia and in Asia Minor.

4, A. alni, 2.—Expanse 14 to 12 inch. Fore wings
light grey with a broad black cloud along the dorsal margin
and across the middle ; hind wings white.

Antenne of the male simple, grey in front, black at the
back ; palpi deep black with the final joint grey ; head light
grey; thorax whitish-grey, with the collar and shoulder
lappets rather raised, and the latter edged outwardly with a
deep black stripe which extends from the back of the eyes
over the base of the wmgs; at the back of the thorax is a
crest of two small tufts, each tipped with black; abdomen
greyish-white ; on the back of the basal segment is a broad
fan-like crest of divergent, nearly erect scales, often tipped

TRIFIDE. 237

with black; lateral and anal tufts whitish, small but spread-
ing. Fore wings of moderate breadth, with the costa very
faintly curved, apex blunt, almost rounded, hind margin long,
oblique, and decidedly curved below the middle, the curve
sweeping smoothly round to the straight dorsal margin ;
ground colour whitish-grey with a broad deep black cloud
from the base along the dorsal margin nearly to the anal
angle, and also forming a cloudy black band across the
middle to the costa; in it are some faintly browner clouds ;
on the costa, near the base, are three ill-defined blackish
streaks, from the third of which arises a blackish first line,
which crosses straight to the black cloud ; beyond the black
central cloudy band is a series of black costal dashes, from
the second of which arises the second line, which sweeps
broadly outward and downward to the middle of the wing
with several undulations, thence bends inward and proceeds
to the dorsal margin, being rendered visible in the black
portion by being edged inside by two grey or reddish-grey
crescents ; through the upper of these crescents passes a
straight, deep black streak, direct to the hind margin close
above the anal angle; orbicular stigma large, indicated by a
slender black ring; reniform stigma obscurely indicated by
purplish-grey clouding in the black band ; space between it
and the second line tinged with smoky-ochreous ; the upper
portion of the second line is bordered outside by a grey
cloud, from the middle of which a small straight black streak
runs to the hind margin, which also is clouded with dark
grey ; cilia white, clouded with dark grey and regularly
barred with black. Hind wings clear white, with a greyish
cloud along the apical portion of the hind margin; cilia
whitish, barred with dark grey. Female hardly differing in
colour or markings, but with the apical grey edging of the
hind wings rather broader.

Underside shining whitish-grey ; costal half of the fore
wings tinged with greyish-brown and with some blackish
clouds along the edge ; underneath the reniform stigma is a

238 LEPIDOPTERA.

black spot ; cilia white, barred with black ; a central blackish
spot on the hind wings and two blackish cloudy spots on the
costal margin, from the second of which commences a slender
series of blackish streaks on the nervures; body greyish-
white ; legs whitish, first pair broadly barred in front with
black.

Hardly variable, except in an occasional extension of the
blackish clouding to the hind margin and in some degree
over the pale portions of the fore wings. In some of the
specimens reared by Dr. Chapman the smoky ochreous space
outside the reniform stigma is large and ovate, paler, some-
times whitish-grey ; in others the orbicular stigma is strongly
black-ringed ; or the pale portion near the costa and _ base is
marbled with black.

On the wing from the middle of May to the middle of June.
It has been reared in September as a second generation.

Larva cylindrical, tapering a very little behind; head
deeply notched or almost bifid above, black ; body, with the
legs, black, deep velvety black on the back ; across the back
of each segment, except the head, is a broad rather rect-
angular blotch of a rich golden yellow; on the second
segment are six long black spatulate hairs, and segments
five to twelve have each a pair of similar long black pointed,
but spoon-shaped hairs, of so conspicuous a character that
from them alone the creature may be at once recognised; on
the anal segment are four such hairs, but on segments three
and four are two pairs of ordinary shorter bristles. This
remarkable costume is that of full growth, or, at any rate,
only after the fourth change of skin. ‘The appearance of the
younger larva is admirably described by the Rev. Hugh A.
Stowell: ‘‘I was looking over some standard roses when I
noticed upon a leaf what appeared to be a recent deposit of
the same nature as that which proved so injurious to Tobit’s
eyesight. A nearer inspection, however, resolved it into a
lepidopterous larva, half doubled round upon itself and

TRIFIDE. 239

resting upon a slight silken pad. Its length was about ten
lines; head small, dark brown, somewhat deeply notched
above; body rather slender, of uniform thickness; colour
dark dirty brown, gradually paler towards the belly, except
the last three segments, which were white with the ground
colour faintly showing through; upon each segment were
conspicuous black warts, small, but conspicuously raised,
bearing short slender brown bristles of the ordinary type,
except those on the post-capital segment, which were
slightly clubbed. Whole body very glossy, appearing as if
varnished.”

Dr. Chapman says that the newly hatched larva has a large
black head; segments 3, 4, 11, and 12 are pale, the others
dark. The raised spots are large, especially so on segments
5 to 9, 12 and 13, where they appear as though fused
together, the plates being fuscous in colour and the lines
between them rufous. The eleventh segment has the
characteristic Acronycta form, projecting slightly laterally,
depressed dorsally, and with the tubercles and hairs much
smaller than in any other segments. The raised spots carry
single hairs, and the second segment has a black dorsal plate ;
head, viewed from the front, distinctly heart-shaped. After
the first moult it appears almost black, but is really dark red-
grey, with white dorsal and sub-dorsal lines; the tubercles or
raised spots are still very large and black. At the second ~
moult the curious appearance, so strongly mimicking the
excrement of a bird, is assumed. It feeds up very rapidly,
moults usually four times, spends four days in feeding in
each skin, and two in each moult, and is full fed in a month
from its emergence from the egg. (Condensed, Dr. Chapman’s
Memoir.)

End of June to August or even September, on alder,
apple, oak, birch, hawthorn, beech, maple, hazel, poplar,
sallow, willow, lime, elm, rose, sycamore, chestnut, horse-
chestnut, and even bramble. Most catholic in its tastes as to
food, and even appearing to change to a fresh food-plant in

240 LEPIDOPTERA.

some cases, after a change of skin, if the opportunity is given
it ; but in confinement it must be supplied with water, or it
will not thrive.

Pura of the usual plain noctua form, cylindrical to the
end of the wing-cases, thence tapering regularly to the tail;
nervures perceptible in the wing-cases; general colour rich
dark-brown, dorsal region a little blacker; anal point with a
distinct round knob, on which is placed a curved series of
decidedly hooked bristles. In a cocoon in a deep hole
excavated by the larva in rotten wood, decayed twigs, soft
bark or bramble pith ; or among chips or morsels of wood or
bark. Dr. Chapman says: “It (the larva) is not particular
in which direction it burrows, but seems to prefer to enter
horizontally and then turn upwards, so that the pupa rests
head downwards. The depth of the burrow varies from
14 to 24 inches. It is made very rapidly, often in three or
four hours, though usually from eight to ten, no doubt
varying with the nature of the material. It throws out all
the excavated material, then when the tube is completed,
stretches out its head and picks up some of the chips or any
other material within reach, and with this and some silk
makes a tolerably firm diaphragm across the opening. Then
retiring to the bottom of the opening, it there makes the
cocoon proper. The top of this is made firmly with silk and
chips and lined closely and smoothly with silk; the walls
have but little silk, but at the base some strong silk is loosely
disposed round the sides, and in this the pupa takes a firm
entanglement with the anal spines and groove. The space
between the outer defence and the cocoon proper varies from
half an inch to an inch, according to the depth of the
burrow.” In this condition through the winter.

So far as I am able to discover, this moth is never seen in
the daytime, and its method of concealment is quite unknown.
It is indeed one of our rarest species in the imago state, the
only captures, and those singly and at long intervals, seem to

TRIFIDZA.. 241

have been at sugar at dusk. The larva also is very scarce,
and when found far more likely to produce a batch of
dipterous parasites than a moth. The female moth lays a
large number of eges—from 200 to 300—but its parasitic
foes are so numerous and so industrious that probably hardly
more than one per cent. in this country reach maturity. In
the year 1880, however, from some unknown cause, the moths,
and especially the larvee, were decidedly more frequent, and
a good many were obtained in the New Forest, Hants. From
some of these, eggs were obtained, and it was found that by
confining the male and female moths in a gauze bag sleeved
on a living branch of a tree in a garden, and feeding the moths
at night with a little syrup, eggs in plenty could be obtained.
The larvz from these, being protected from their enemies, were
easily reared, and from this source large numbers have been
brought to maturity, to the great benefit of our collections.

The captures of the moth, so far as recorded, are excessively
rare, but it has been taken in the New Forest, at Foxley
Wood, Norfolk, and in a few other places, at sugar. The
larva, on the other hand, has been met with, usually singly, in
almost all parts of the country; most frequently in the New
Forest, Hants, and in Sussex, more casually in every one of
the Southern, South-Western and Kastern counties, also in
Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Leicestershire,
Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Cheshire, Lancashire,
and even in a good many localities in Yorkshire. ‘This seems
to be the limit of its range northward. In Wales it has been
found in Glamorganshire and Carmarthenshire; and in Ireland
there is a single record by the late Mr. EH. Birchall at
Powerscourt in the County Wicklow.

Abroad also it is scarce, though widely distributed in
Central Europe and the warmer portions of Northern Europe,
also in Piedmont.

5. A. strigosa, /ab.—Expanse 1} inch. Fore wings pale
grey mixed with yellowish; a black spot on the costa, and a
VOL. III. Q

242 LEPIDOPTERA.

succession of,deep black streaks from the base to the anal
angle ; hind wings whitish.

Antenne of the male simple, very slightly ciliated, greyish-
brown; palpi grey, black at the sides; head and thorax grey,
shoulder lappets uplifted; at the back of the thorax is a
small tufted crest, flattened in the middle; abdomen rather
shining, whitish-grey ; basal segment with a broad, spreading,
whitish crest, dusted with black or grey; lateral and anal
tufts whitish. Fore wings narrow, the costa slightly rounded ;
apex bluntly angulated; hind margin at first but slightly
curved, more fully so toward the anal angle and dorsal
margin, which last is rather straight, but curves in, so as to
render the base narrow. Ground colour pale grey softly
shaded with very faint yellowish; at the base of the dorsal
margin is an elongated yellow or orange-yellow patch, and
bordering it, from the base of the wing, a conspicuous black
longitudinal streak reaching the first line and there branching,
but continued in the same direction by two more successive
black streaks along the dorsal region, the third branched and
running into the anal angle; between these and the dorsal
margin the space is clouded and streaked with black. First line
black, slender, much indented; second line blackish, very indis-
tinct, but edged with white, indented and very deeply hollowed
above the anal angle, then bending strongly back makes a
wide sweep nearer to the hind margin, but curving in, hardly
reaches the costa; lying in the deep hollow which it forms
is a long white crescent which borders a black cloud at the
base of the third longitudinal black streak ; orbicular stigma
whitish, imperfectly edged with black ; reniform stigma large,
tinged with yellow, edged internally with a black line,
externally with a faint grey line; hind margin spotted with
black ; cilia greyish-white, dusted with black. Hind wings
pale grey or whitish, with a slightly elbowed slender grey
transverse line beyond the middle; hind margin dotted with
blackish ; cilia grey. Female with the hind wings a little
greyer, otherwise similar.

TRIFIDA, 243

Underside of the fore wings greyish, whiter at the margins ;
a grey transverse line beyond the middle; cilia pale grey
spotted with black; hind wings whitish with a black central
spot followed by a slender blackish elbowed transverse line ;
hind margin with black dashes ; body whitish; legs whitish,
dusted with grey; anterior pair barred in front with black.

Apparently not variable except in very rare instances. A
specimen in the collection of the late Mr. I. Bond, now in
the possession of Mr. Sydney Webb, at Dover, is nearly black,
except the reniform stigma, which is yellow.

On the wing in July.

LakvA rather tapering in front; on the fifth segment are
two small but distinct humps, and on the back of the twelfth
is another, very prominent, double at the apex; from this it
tapers regularly off to the anal flap. Ground colour rich
velvety yellow-green, well relieved by a deep crimson-brown
dorsal stripe faintly bordered with yellowish, beginning on
the head, where it occupies the full breadth, tapering a little
on the second segment and again on the third, widened on
the fourth so as to embrace the two humped tubercles on the
fifth, and then diminished to no more than a broad stripe on
the sixth and seventh, but suddenly widened on the eighth
and ninth, and thence very gradually less to the hump on the
twelfth, whence it is only narrow to the anal flap; raised
spots all of the yellow-green ground colour, even those on
the dorsal stripe, though the bases of these latter are blackish ;
each bears one long blackish hair and a few short ones,
except on the lower parts of the body, where they are whitish ;
spiracles white, finely outlined with black ; remainder of head
greenish, glossy; second segment slightly glistening; legs
and prolegs green. When quite full fed it becomes very
dingy, dark velvety-green, and the crimson-brown of the
back almost fades away; the raised spots appear black, ringed
with green, and sometimes a greenish dorsal line appears.
One variety occurred, after the last moult, in which the whole

244 LEPIDOPTERA.

skin of the larva was of the richest velvety crimson-brown.
When half grown it has no humps; the ground colour is
green, the head black, and there are dark purplish-crimson-
brown blotches down the middle of the back. (Condensed
from Buckler.)

Of the infant larva Dr. Chapman says that it is very
flimsy and transparent, with hairs nearly half its own length ;
segments, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12 dark, the rest pale; on the
eleventh segment the raised spots are small and the hairs
short, as in the young larvee of nearly all this group; head
tinted with indigo. At this time it rests underneath a leaf
curled in a horse-shoe shape, and eats holes in the substance
of the leaf, and does not commence to eat through a leaf until
after the second moult.

August and the beginning of September on hawthorn, and
probably blackthorn.

Pura of ordinary form, pale greenish-brown with a darker
dorsal line, the leg and wing cases so transparent that the
incisions of the segments of the body beneath them are very
distinct, and the tracheal vessels running down the antenne
and legs are obvious. The whole pupa looks extremely
delicate and fragile. The spiracles are dark raised rings and
are the only solid looking parts of the pupa. The anal
armature consists of two dorsal and six ventral spines ; these
are long compared to the size of the pupa, and are hooked.
When ready to pupate the larva will bore into rotten wood
or will go into a stem of reed or elder, or form a cocoon
among sawdust or loose rubbish. In rotten wood, which
seems to please it best, it prefers to go in horizontally in a
perpendicular face and then bore upwards, but it differs from
alni in that when it has closed the opening, to all appearance
in much the same way, the diaphragm so made is the actual
top or outlet of the cocoon proper, there being no inner
structure. The space excavated is lined with a little silk,
and here and there by a few chips removed apparently in

TRIFIDA. 245

giving a proper shape to the cavity. The thin silk opercu-
lum, coated with chips, which forms the outlet of the cocoon,
often shows no indication of the exit of the moth—the sides
of the opening, which is an irregular slit, falling together
again. (Dr. Chapman.)

In this state through the winter.

The moth is found occasionally, in its very restricted
localities, sitting in the daytime on the trunk of a hawthorn,
or an oak, clinging very closely to the bark and resembling
a knob of bark or a small patch of lichen. It flies at dusk,
and its flight is said to be low, undulating, and even slow.
It comes readily to sugar, but prefers a sheltered situation.

It is one of our most local species, almost confined to the
Cambridge district—Fulbourn, Whittlesford, Waterbeach,
Isleham, Wicken, Chatteris, Newmarket ; and Monkswood,
Hunts. There is a record of the capture of two specimens at
Castle Morton, Worcestershire, and the Rev. T. H. Marsh
informs me of his capture of a specimer in North Norfolk.
Moreover, the late Mr. J. ’. Stephens, writing about the year
1829, stated: ‘“ Mr. Haworth possesses a single specimen of
this insect, which I believe was captured in Norfolk.” Nearly
all the recent specimens have been obtained in the Cambridge
district, to which its range in these Islands is probably now
almost limited. Abroad it inhabits Central Europe, Southern
France, Southern Russia, and some portion of Siberia.

6. A. tridens, Schiff—Expanse 14 to 13 inch. Fore
wings of a warm grey, with a deep black streak at the base
and on the costa, and a black dagger-mark at the anal angle;
second line curved obliquely inward toward the costa.

Antenne of the male rather stout, notched near the base,
finely ciliated, dark brown, with the back of the shaft ashy-
white; palpi and head tufted, greyish-white ; thorax greyish,
rather square, with a sught ridge in the middle of the collar;
shoulder lappets rather upraised, edged outwardly with
black ; at the back is a small crest of two points, each usually

246 LEPIDOPTERA.

with a small: blackish spot; abdomen whitish-grey, with two
or three half-erect grey or blackish dorsal crests on the
basal segments; lateral tufts large and spreading; anal tuft
short and rather square. Fore wings somewhat triangular,
with the costa very faintly rounded, apex bluntly angulated,
almost rounded; hind margin curved and oblique; dorsal
margin shghtly rounded ; colour rather a warm tint of grey,
from a faintly yellowish gloss which is usually perceptible ;
from the base is a deep black longitudinal streak slightly
forked at one-half its length, and on reaching the first line
branched on each side; an equally black straight streak,
branched on each side at its origin in the second line, runs
into the anal angle, and forms the ‘‘dagger” from which the
species derives its common name. First line indistinct,
double, curved, and scalloped above the dorsal margin;
second line placed far beyond the middle of the wing, black,
slender, curved obliquely outward from near the costal
margin, thence curved down and repeatedly toothed as it
passes toward the anal angle, above which it crosses the
dagger-mark before attaining the dorsal margin. Another
but much smaller dagger, crossing the middle of this line,
points to the hind margin; the stigmata are only indicated
by an irregular black streak giving off slender lines which
represent parts of their margins, this streak being united
with the costa by a black dash. Beyond this dash the costa
is regularly spotted with black, with whitish interspaces. The
narrow area outside the second line is usually clouded with
darker grey, and the margin is spotted with black, which
runs into the whitish cilia. Hind wings white, nervures
beyond the middle brownish, where also is a faint angulated
brownish transverse line; hind margin dotted and edged
with brownish; cilia white. Female very similar, but with
faintly darker hind wings more dashed with brown.
Underside of fore wings pale silvery grey, with the costa
spotted with black, a grey central lunule, and brownish
nervures ; in some specimens with a blackish elbowed trans-

TRIFIDA. 247

verse stripe beyond the lunule; hind margin dotted with
black. Hind wings as on the upper side, but with a black
central spot. Body whitey-brown; legs white, barred with
black.

Not usually very variable. A specimen in Dr. F. D.
Wheeler’s collection is remarkably large and of a most
curious leaden grey. As a rule, however, the dark suffused
variation so common in the next species is not produced in
this. Freshly reared specimens often have almost a pinkish
hue, which usually fades, leaving merely the warm yellowish
under-shade, but some of the specimens reared by Dr.
Chapman are permanently and most exquisitely tinged all
over the fore wings with a strong and decided pink flush,
which, so far, is permanent; while others reared by him are
suffused with equally delicate pinkish-yellow or yellowish ;
and some are pale slate-grey, or dusted with darker grey.

On the wing in June. Specimens reared from the egg
sometimes emerge in September. This Dr. Chapman has
once found to be the case with one-half a brood. No such
second emergence seems to occur with us out of doors.

Larva rather hairy, moderately cylindrical, with the
incisions rather deeply indicated; a large black tubercle on
the back of the fifth segment, and a broader hump on the
twelfth, somewhat flatly pyramidal, white, with large black
spots or irregular markings. Ground colour of the body
black, with a very broad orange-coloured dorsal stripe inter-
rupted with whitish; subdorsal stripes also broad, orange-
red interrupted with black; two white dots on the black
portion of each segment, from the fifth to the twelfth;
spiracular stripe pinkish-grey, bright pink, or orange-red on
the third and fourth segments and round the hinder part of
the thirteenth ; under surface and legs pale grey; head black.
It may at once be discriminated from the following species
by its short stout tubercle on the fifth segment, the orange
dorsal colouring and the breadth and beauty of the sub-

248 LEPIDOPTERA:

dorsal red and black markings. The infant larva is described
by Dr. Chapman as having no humps, but is almost covered
with the plates formed by the raised spots, which are large
and crowded, in some cases apparently fused together; each
bears a long hair; the general colour is whitish, but segments
5, 8, 9, and 12, are reddish-brown. After the first skin is
cast more hairs appear, and also indications of the coloured
markings, but the eleventh segment is inferior to the rest in
these respects. By the time that the second change of skin
arrives an orange-coloured dorsal stripe has appeared, inter-
rupted on the fifth segment, where already are faint
indications of a hump, and on the twelfth, where is a white
cross; the thirteenth segment is now bright orange-red.
After the second moult the larva becomes very brilliant, a
row of white spots on segments six to ten, and the white
cross on the twelfth contrast with the rich orange of the
dorsal band and the black below “so as to give the effect of
gems richly set.” After the fourth moult the head becomes
black, the dorsal hump on the fifth segment has come to
look like an excrescence rather than a portion of the
segment, which in size and shape otherwise resembles the
rest; from this the segments diminish to the eleventh, which
still is rather small and weak, while the twelfth is large and
furnished with its hump; the markings now tend towards
those in the full grown larva, but are more complicated ;
orange-yellow on the back, then black with white spots,
“like a boss of white porcelain,’ and orange-red spots and
streaks; below this, fuscous marbled with reddish-white or
dirty-white in small rings; below this, orange-red lines and
patches. As it comes to full growth the inferiority of
segment eleven vanishes, and the adult colouring is assumed;
the hairs after the fifth moult are at first long, but gradually
become broken or injured and far less conspicuous. When it
has finished feeding and desires to spin up, the colouring
becomes much more dingy. Dr. Chapman’s details are so full
that it is difficult to compress them into the space that can

TRIFIDZ. . 249

be spared in a work of the present nature, yet I am unwilling
to forego the advantage of them.

August, September, October, on hawthorn, apple, pear,
plum, oak, birch, sallow, but especially on fruit-trees and
rosaceous plants.

Pupa of the usual form, of a polished brown horny texture
and rather semi-transparent, so that a darker dorsal internal
line and a paler lateral line are perceptible, the ventral
surface being also paler; anal point with a series of fine
bristles very slightly curved. In a cocoon behind a piece of
loose bark, or in a chink of rotten wood, where a suitable
cavity is hollowed out and finished off with a little white
silk. The larva will, however, use a hollow stick, or hollow
out the pith from a stick of bramble, raspberry, or elder, in
which case the hole is closed by the top of the cocoon. If
nothing suitable is provided, the accommodating creature will
content itself with sawdust or even earth, forming an ordinary
cocoon of silk and the surrounding materials. In this
condition through the winter, and occasionally until a second
year.

Not a common species, but probably sometimes overlooked
from its close resemblance to the next. Inthe moth state it is
very rarely captured at all, either at rest, or flying, or at
sugar. Very possibly it prefers concealed situations, such as
the higher branches of trees, since the vast majority of speci-
mens in collections are reared. Hence its range is ascertained
from recurrences of the larva rather than of the perfect insect,
but, so far as is known, its habits are similar to those of its
allies. Formerly it was not scarce in the London district, but
seems now to have disappeared. Probably still to be found
over the greater part of England, since it is recorded, in the
Southern counties, from Kent to Cornwall, and in the former
county and Sussex not uncommonly, also in Norfolk, Suffolk,
the Cambridge Fen district, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire,

250 LEPIDOPTERA.

Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lin-
colnshire, and Yorkshire ; in the latter county very local.
I have no record further north in England, but in the south
of Scotland there is a single record by Dr. F. B. White, of
its occurrence in the Solway district. Probably throughout
South Wales, since it has been found in the Swansea district,
and in Pembrokeshire rarely. In Ireland it is recorded from
Dublin, King’s County, Galway, Sligo, and Donegal. The
difficulty found in ascertaining its accurate range is increased
by a misleading common name—it has erroneously been
called the ‘Dark Dagger,” and consequently there is reason
to fear that some of the local records are merely of dark
varieties of the next species.

Abroad it is widely distributed in Central Europe and the
temperate portions of Northern Europe, as well as in
Northern Spain, Bulgaria, Southern Russia, and Siberia.

7. A. psi, Z.—Expanse, 14 to 13 inch. Very like A.
tridens ; of a rather colder grey ; the second line makes a
broader and more squared bend when turning in toward the
costa.

The description of A. ¢ridens is also that of this species, so
very nearly that the only advantageous course appears to be
to point out the slight distinctions. The thorax and abdomen
in the present species seem to be slightly more robust and
the shoulders a little more squared; fore wings slightly
broader and more triangular; the ground colour of a colder
erey—devoid of either pinkish or yellowish tone—but vary-
ing from whitish-grey to shades very much darker than are
observed in A. tridens. The second line of the fore wings, at
its origin on the costa, runs at first more parallel with that
margin, and so, as it bends, makes a broader and more
squared curve above the middle of the wing. Costal spots
usually rather less distinct. In the female the hind wings
are often more smoothly and generally suffused with brownish-
grey, which in some instances is quite dark,

TRIFID. 251

The present species is also very much more variable in
ground colour than the last, from a whiter grey to a deep
slate-grey or grey-black, but the markings are always dis-
tinctly deeper black and, in the vast majority of instances,
the ground colour, whether darker or paler, is uniform. In
some specimens, and more particularly in the paler forms,
the two stigmata are completely outlined, in others the
orbicular only, and in some, dark varieties more especially,
the usual partial outlines are much restricted. Usually the
hind wings vary darker, in some degree in accordance with
the blackening of the fore wings, but this is not invariable,
there being in some instances a sharp contrast. The blackest
specimens are obtained in the outskirts of London, In a
brood, reared by Dr. Chapman at Hereford, a number of
specimens in both sexes have the dagger near the anal angle
so much shortened that its upper end hardly extends over
the inner side of the black second line ; in these the first line
is distinctly duplicated, and the enclosed pale stripe very
conspicuously and obliquely shows itself in crossing the wing ;
the second line is also more angulated and flattened in its
upper portion This is a very remarkable aberrant form;
Dr. Chapman calls it var. bidens.

On the wing in June, July, and August, in one generation
emerging over a long period. I have no knowledge of any
second emergence within the year.

Larva cylindrical, with distinct segmental incisions ; on
the back of the fifth segment is a long, conspicuous, slender,
upright tubercle, and on the twelfth a much shorter and
broader dorsal hump. Head large, rounded, shining, slightly
hairy ; all the usual raised spots of the body emit a few
blackish or reddish hairs. Colour greyish-black on the sides,
a broad lemon-yellow dorsal stripe is interrupted on the fifth,
twelfth, and thirteenth segments; spiracular stripe broad,
whitish ; between these stripes are two transverse bright red
dashes on each segment; the long tubercle on the fifth

252 LEPIDOPTERA,

segment brownish-grey ; hump on the twelfth edged behind
with blackish, Head dark-brown, with a distinct dull
orange facial A-mark. Spiracles black. On the second
segment is a narrow dorsal line. Dorsal stripe sometimes
chalky-white, especially when full-fed (C. Fenn).

The newly hatched larva is very distinctly larger than
that of A. tridens ; the raised spots are larger and more
angulated and the lateral plates of the pro-legs very distinctly
darker ; segments 3, 4, 6, 7, 10 and 11 are pale, the rest
dark, except segment thirteen, which is intermediate. Seg-
ment twelve is already large and dark. Each raised spot
has a single hair. After the first moult the larva is blacker
with longer hairs, second, fifth, and twelfth segments almost
humped, the dorsal hairs black, the lateral white; dorsal
stripe beginning to appear. After the second moult the
dorsal stripe is more distinct and continuous, and the adult
colouring begins to be noticeable, but the tubercle on the
fifth segment is still only a hump formed of some of the
dorsal raised spots ; the hairs arising from the spots are more
numerous, and the sides are reddish-grey marbled with
yellowish-grey. From the third moult it gradually completes
its change to the adult appearance. (Dr. Chapman.)

August, September, October, on rose, lime, hawthorn,
birch, sallow, and, indeed, on all the ordinary leaf-bearing
deciduous trees.

It is very noticeable in the autumn from its bright con-
Spicuous colouring, singular dorsal tubercle, and from its
habit of wandering about the trunks of trees in the daytime,
not only when full-fed and in search of a soft spot for pupa-
tion, but also when little more than half grown. Its wander-
ings are sometimes extended to footpaths and fences,
Readily separated from the last species by the long, slender
tubercle on the fifth segment, its pale yellow or whitish
dorsal stripe, and narrower sub-dorsal black and red stripe.

Pupa elongate, shining, anal extremity blunt with several

TRIFIDE. 253

minute bristles placed in a partial circle; deep mahogany
red. In a compact silken cocoon in a hole or chamber in
rotten wood. I have known a dead bough, from the top of a
birch tree, when broken off by the wind, to show, at the point
of fracture, the chamber inhabited by a pupa of this species,
which ultimately produced the moth. The larva, however, is
not particular, but will make use of the old cocoon of a
Cerura, or any suitable hole in a tree, or will spin up
under bark or among chips. In this condition through the
winter.

The moth is a common and familiar object through the
summer, loving to sit on a paling, the trunk of a tree, or the
wall of a house. It flies at dusk, and comes readily to sugar,
though not in the numbers which might be expected from its
apparent plenty.

Common in all parts of England and Wales, and on the
mainland in Scotland ; common in Ireland, and there always
of a pale colour. Also plentiful all over the Continent of
Europe, except the coldest portions, and in Siberia and
Northern Africa.

(A. cuspis, Hiib.—This is a species very similar to the two
last, but larger and more strongly marked. Its larva has a
long tubercle on the fifth segment, crowned by a singular
tuft of long erect bristles. The species was recorded as
British by Stephens (Illust. 2-41), from his memory of a
specimen in the collection of Mr. Hatchett and taken at
Dulwich. This identification seems never to have been con-
firmed, and there is little doubt that the specimen in question
was a large A. psi.

In Dr. Mason’s immense collection at Burton-on-Trent are
two fine specimens, correctly named, which were obtained by
him from the collection of the late Mr. Edwin Brown. They
are labelled ‘ Carter, Carrington Moss.” There is, however,
I believe, no reason whatever to think that <A. cuspis is a
genuine inhabitant of these Islands.)

254 LEPIDOPTERA.

8. A. menyanthidis, Lsy.—Expanse 1} to 13 inch.
Fore wings erey with white clouds; orbicular stigma very
small; second line sharply black; a black dash from the
middle of the costa; hind wings grey.

ANTENN& of the male simple, rather stout, pale brown,
barred at the back with white; palpi depressed, shaggy
with long grey scales; head pale grey; thorax shaggy,
whitish-grey ; collar upright ; shoulder lappets upraised ; at
the back a blunt, indistinctly divided crest ; abdomen pale
brownish-grey, each segment covered with long shagg
scales arising at its base; the basal segment having also a
depressed grey dorsal tuft or crest, half hidden by the long
loose scales; back of the following segments ridged and
having diverging scales in the ridge ; lateral tufts spreading,
whitish ; anal tuft greyish. Fore wings rather broad, with
the costa nearly straight; apex bluntly angulated; hind
margin long, oblique, regularly curved ; dorsal margin rather
short. Colour, pale slate-grey clouded with whitish-grey,
or else with darker ; from the middle of the base is a short,
rather thick, black streak, below it, at the base of the dorsal
margin, is a whitish tuft; first lme only indicated by blackish
atoms and a black dash on the costa; second line placed
near the hind margin and well marked, black, scalloped
between the nervures, and bending deeply inward below the
middle, where it forms broader black scallops, the whole
edged on the inner side by a whitish line; a very slender
and small black dagger-streak crosses the black scallops, and
points toward the anal angle; orbicular stigma remarkably
small but sharply ringed with black; reniform stigma in-
distinct, black, but divided into two perpendicular black
dashes, the inner of which is connected with the costa by one
of a series of black costal spots; space beyond the second
line darker grey; hind margin edged with faint black
streaks ; cilia whitish-grey, dashed with dark grey. Hind
wings pale grey or whitish, clouded with grey, sometimes

TRIFIDZA:. 255

clouded along the costal margin with grey-brown, and often
with the nervures grey-brown; a central streak is faintly
visible, grey-brown ; cilia whitish, sometimes faintly spotted
with grey. Female very similar, but the fore wings are
usually more of a slate-grey, and the hind wings uniformly
darker and varying to dark grey-brown.

Underside of fore wings dull grey-brown, margins rather
paler ; cilia dashed with blackish. Hind wings grey-brown
or whitish, paler from the middle to the costal margin;
central spot distinctly lunate, black; cilia whitish, clouded
and dashed with dusky grey. Body much tufted, smoky
white; anal segment dark brown and black; legs grey. In
some specimens the fore wings beneath are silvery white with
a leaden central shade, which also runs along the dorsal margin
toward the base ; in others the costa is spotted with black or
has two large cloudy black blotches, with black central and
dorsal clouds. The hind wings are sometimes pure white—
the whole underside is, indeed, rather variable in this species.

Usually rather constant in colouring on the upper side,
but in some specimens considerable blackening is shown at
the outer edges of the first and second transverse lines.
Such specimens are occasionally obtained in the Lancashire
mosses. Blacker examples still are found, though rarely, in
Yorkshire ; Mr. 8. J. Capper has two such, of a very dark
grey with still blacker markings, and Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher
one of a smoky-black.

On the wing in June and July.

Larva stout, hairy, slightly attenuated at each extremity ;
head shining black; ground colour black, velvety ; spiracles
white, and beneath each, two red blotches; the usual raised
spots emit bunches of reddish-brown, or black, hairs ; one
of these bunches lies between the pairs of red blotches on
each segment ; legs shining black. (Chas. Fenn.)

Dr. Chapman says that when just hatched the raised spots
are pale, but soon become black, and the larva is then almost

256 LEPIDOPTERA.

entirely black, As it grows it shows the same pale segments
and much the same colouring as the more closely allied
species, the dark segments become smoky brown and the
hairs are black, from one to six on a raised spot, and twice as
long as the larva is thick ; the pale seements show themselves
more especially in white spaces around the raised spots; but
there is variation at this stage, some of the larva being black
and white. At each change of skin it is at first black, then
erows paler; and when nearly one-half grown the fifth
segment is thickened, as also is the twelfth, but as it con-
tinues to grow this thickening disappears. As it progresses
toward full growth the colour is somewhat inconstant, being
in one variety jet black, with the hairs either black or dirty
whitish ; in another the skin is browner, with few black
hairs, the majority being pale brown; while a third form is
intermediate, the third and twelfth seements blacker than
the rest, the remaining segments with more black hairs, but
the brown ones paler. None have any markings except the
red lateral spots, which are dirty brick-red in varieties two and
three, but in variety one of a rich pink-red. Of the full fed
larva there is an aberration of a deep brown colour.

August, September, on sallow, heather, sweet gale, whortle-
berry, bramble, bog-bean (Menyanthes trifoliata), birch, and
even rushes and grasses. Very fond of the dwarf sallows
and birch bushes growing at the edges of wet spots on
heaths. Feeding by day, and usually near the top of its

food-plant.

Pura very cylindrical, being of nearly the same breadth
from the shoulders of the wing cases to within a short
distance of the tail, where it is very suddenly tapered off;
rounded in front; covers of the eyes and palpi prominent ;
abdominal segments each with a raised ridge like the hoop
of a cask; anal bristles very small, on a short thick spike,
unicolorous black-brown. In a strong, tough cocoon of
brown silk among fallen leaves or rubbish, close to the

TRIFIDZA. 257

surface of the ground. In this condition through the winter,
Mr. Fenn states that the cocoon is sometimes made among
heather, and in such a case is ornamented on the outside
with blossoms and fragments of heather.

The moth may be found in the daytime sitting on railings,
if accessible, or on stones, or the bare ground in the mosses
and on the moors. It flies at dusk, and is readily attracted
by sugar; but is more frequently taken in the larva than in
the imago state. Widely distributed in Yorkshire, Lan-
cashire, and the north of Cheshire and Staffordshire, on
mosses and heaths, and sometimes commons; also found in
Cumberland, and probably in suitable places throughout the
North of England. The only instance which I know of its
occurrence farther south in England is the capture of two
larvee, one at Hickling, the other at Barton Turf, both in the
Norfolk fens, by Dr. F. D. Wheeler, twenty years ago. One
of these was reared, and so fully authenticated. There are
instances of the capture of the species in North Wales (by
Dr. Chapman and Mr. R. Newstead), but its favoured home
is Scotland, where it is common on heaths and in moorland
districts in Perthshire and throughout the West and North,
in smaller numbers in the East and middle districts, and
extends to Sutherlandshire, Moray, and Ross-shire; on the
mountains ascending to upwards of 1000 feet. Much less
common and more local in Ireland, though Mr. Kane has
found larvee in plenty in Galway, and it is recorded from
Westmeath, Sligo, and Donegal. Abroad its range seems to
be somewhat restricted, but it is found in most parts of
Northern and Central Europe.

9. A. auricoma, Sciif/—Hxpanse 14 inch. Fore wings
pale grey, marbled with darker, lines cloudy black ; orbicular
stigma distinct, reniform stigma elongated ; an obscure dagger
at the anal angle; hind wings pale grey.

Antenne of the male simple, dark brown; palpi dark
VOL. IL. R

258 LEPIDOPTERA.

brown, tufted, apical joint small, pale, and surrounded by a
few long scales; head grey, mixed with black; thorax grey;
collar and shoulder-lappets raised, the latter edged outwardly
with black, an obscure crest at the back tipped with dark-
grey ; from below it long fascicles of yellow hair-scales con-
verge over the base of the abdomen; the latter is yellowish-
grey, and has upon its basal segment a broad oblique tuft or
crest, not very visible from the abundance of long coarse
yellowish hair-scales which cover this and the following seg-
ments, and rise on the dorsal ridge, into additional, faintly
darker, tufts; lateral tufts small, yellowish-white, anal tuft
similar, but longer and rather divided. Fore wings with the
costa very straight; apex blunt; hind margin oblique but
very little curved till below the middle, whence the curve
sweeps round the anal angle; dorsal margin rather straight ;
colour greyish-white, much clouded and marbled with dark-
grey; a black doubly-branched streak from the middle of
the base crosses the first line, which is black, indented, not
well-defined, but duplicated from the costa to the black
streak, thence scalloped to the dorsal margin; second line
far beyond the middle of the wing, black, deeply indented
and scalloped, but clouded, and sometimes not very distinct ;
orbicular stigma conspicuous, white, rmged with black, and
placed in a large squared whitish space; reniform stigma
rather long and narrow, accurately kidney-shaped, edged at
the back by a black line which arises on the costa, otherwise
irregularly margined, and sometimes divided, with black ;
inside the second line is a slender parallel edging of white,
outside it a broad transverse ill-defined cloudy-grey stripe,
beyond which the sub-marginal region is paler grey dappled
with whitish; hind margin spotted with black, the black
extending in dashes through the greyish cilia. Hind wings
whitish or pale brownish-grey, with the nervures rather
browner ; beyond the middle is a faintly whitish transverse
stripe; hind margin more tinged with brown, and with a
cloudy brown spot at the anal angle; cilia whitish. Female

TRIFIDA. 259

very similar, the colour of the fore wings sometimes rather
darker, and the hind wings more of a uniform pale grey-
brown.

Underside pale greyish-brown, with three blackish costal
clouds, from the third of which is a dark grey transverse
stripe; cilia pale grey, barred with blackish. Hind wings
whitish dusted with grey, with a distinct, slender, central,
transverse, curved stripe, and in the curve a grey central
spot; beyond it a second and more slender transverse line ;
hind margin edged with grey ; cilia whitish. Body whitey-
brown ; legs whitish barred with grey.

Slightly variable in the depth of ground colour and
in the distinctness of the markings, some specimens being
pale and sharply marked, others much obscured with dark
grey.

End of April, May, and again at the end of July and in
August.

Certainly in some degree double-brooded, since the moths
of the spring emergence are said to be the larger; and the
moth has been reared in August from a June larva; but Dr.
Chapman when studying the species did not find that the
produce of eggs of the early specimens produced moths until
the following spring.

Larva, when full-grown, about one inch and a half long;
cylindrical, but the head smaller. Ground colour of the body
and ventral legs dark slate-grey; head and anterior legs
black and shining ; a black plate on the second segment ; all
the segments divided by very narrow black bands; a broad
velvety-black transverse band across the middle of the back
of each segment on which are placed four orange tubercles in
the usual order, the anterior pair being much the larger,
except on the third and fourth segments, where they are of
equal size and placed in a transverse row; all the tubercles
are furnished with bright golden-yellow silky hairs, which
give the larva a very beautiful appearance. Spiracles white,

260 LEPIDOPLERA:

ringed with ‘black; the sides of the body slightly garnished
with hairs of a pale drab colour. (W. Buckler.)

‘The larva when newly hatched is pale, but very shortly the
raised spots become black, and they are so closely set to-
gether as to make the larva appear quite black; when
stretched out in feeding it can be seen that the third, fourth,
sixth, seventh, tenth, eleventh, and thirteenth segments, are
paler than the others. As it grows the spots separate and
the larva becomes of a chocolate-brown with black spots and
lighter markings—principally whitish rings round the raised
spots and on the pale segments, and a white streak below
them. ‘I'he head is then black, the raised spots are furnished
with from five to seven or eight hairs each. After the first
moult the body again appears black from the larger size of the
raised spots, but very soon the brown colour is again apparent ;
the fifth and twelfth segments are now swollen, or rather
humped, and the eleventh noticeably small and slender; the
hairs are more numerous, and the whitish rings round the
raised spots gradually assume a yellow colour on the pale
segments. A similar process of colour-changes takes place
after the second moult, and yellow markings appear on the
last two segments. After the third change of skin some
larvee continue similar to before, others begin to assume
brighter colouring, and many of the raised spots become of a
brilliant orange colour ; the hairs, which are now still more
numerous, varying from black to orange according to their
position; the fifth and twelfth segments are still rather
humped, and this continues after the fourth moult and till
near full-growth when the twelfth segment has become even
with the rest, and the fifth but very slightly larger. At the
same time the adult colouring is gradually assumed, in some
larvee with only four changes of skin, iu others with five.
(Condensed from Dr. Chapman’s memoir).

June, and the beginning of July, and in a second genera-
tion in September; on oak, birch, bramble, raspberry, and
whortleberry.

TRIFIDA. 261

Pura rather cylindrical, rounded in front, elongated, with
the abdomen slightly curved forward; segments of the
abdomen with a distinct smooth hoop-like band; anal seg-
ments with a tuft of short stiff bristles. Colour dark
chestnut brown, with the incisions of the free segments black.
In a cocoon of whitish silk covered with morsels of leaf or
rubbish, at the foot of a tree, or on the underside of a leaf, on
the ground.

In this condition through the winter.

I find no record of the place of concealment adopted by
this species in the daytime except that it occasionally sits on
the trunk of a tree. It flies at dusk and is readily attracted
to sugar, but restless, and easily frightened away. It is an
exceedingly local species, inhabiting woods in the extreme
south of England, apparently only in the counties of Sussex
and Kent—Brighton, Hastings, Hailsham, Canterbury,
Tenterden, Gravesend, and formerly rather common in the
Rochester district.

Abroad it is found throughout Central Europe and great
part of Northern Europe, Northern Italy, Northern Spain,
Southern Russia, Armenia, and Siberia. Also widely dis-
tributed in North America, extending to the Hudson’s Bay
Territory, and bearing the names of impressa, fasciata, and
Verrillit.

10. A. euphorbie, Fub., myrica, Gn.—Expanse 1} to
1} inch. Fore wings dark slate-colour, with lines and
stigmata obscurely black; hind wings of male white, of
female dark grey.

Antennee of the male thick, simple, dark grey, toward the
base barred, at the back, with whitish ; palpi short, tufted,
blackish-grey ; head dark grey with a whitish tuft at the
base of each antenna; thorax densely covered with blackish-
erey raised scales, dusted with whitish; shoulder-lappets
slightly raised and edged outwardly with black; at the back

262 LEPIDOPTERA.

is a crest divided into small double tufts edged with black ;
fascicles short, greyish white ; abdomen dark grey or blackish
thinly covered with soft white downy hair-scales; on the
basal segment is a broad depressed dorsal crest rather
obscured by long hair scales, and the following segments
exhibit slight dorsal tufts of dark raised scales; lateral tufts
spreading, whitish; anal tuft mixed grey and black. Fore
wings slightly narrower than in the preceding species, with
straight costa, blunt apex, oblique rounded hind margin, and
rounded dorsal margin; colour blackish-grey, dusted with
minute white scales so as to appear of a dark slate-grey, and
having a white patch at the base of the dorsal margin; first
line only visible as a series of blacker angulated streaks and
spots; second line a succession of black scallops or deep
crescents, edged inwardly with whitish; orbicular and reni-
form stigmata indicated by black outlines; cilia chequered,
black and white. Hind wings white, with faintly brownish
nervures, and tinged with grey along the costal margin;
hind margin edged with black, cilia white.

Female darker, and with dark grey hind wings having
white cilia; otherwise similar.

Underside of fore wings in the male pale grey much dashed
with whitish between the nervures; costa spotted with black
and one of the spots prolonged into a faint grey transverse
line; cilia white, barred with black. Hind wings white,
clouded with grey along the costal region ; central spot, and
a spot near the costal margin, black; hind margin edged
with grey, cilia white. In the female the fore wings beneath
are dark smoky-grey with the margins a little paler; hind
wings paler smoky-grey with the spots faintly visible. Body
mottled, grey and blackish, legs dark grey, first pair black
with whitish bars.

Apparently not variable with us, yet regarded abroad as a
permanent variety of a somewhat different Continental
mountain form.

On the wing in April, May, and June.

TRIFIDE. 263

Larva hairy, moderately stout, tapering to each extremity ;
the spots tubercular and emitting bunches of rather short
hairs, incisions deeply cleft ; head small, rounded and shining.
Ground colour dark olivaceous-grey, broadly and transversely
banded with deep velvety black; a conspicuous pale lemon-
yellow subdorsal blotch on each segment, interrupting the
transverse black band, which is also interrupted laterally by
a shining tubercle ; spiracles prominent, whitish; below each
of them is a red blotch tinged beneath with yellow; these
blotches unite when the larva is contracted, and form a stripe ;
second segment with a red transverse dorsal blotch ; tubercular
spots emitting bunches of rather short, mixed, blackish and
yellowish hairs. Head black with a yellow V on the face;
under surface yellowish or pale brown, legs dark brown ;
pro-legs tipped with brown. (Charles Fenn.)

Dr. Chapman says, that when just hatched it is hardly
distinguishable from the allied species; after the first moult
it may readily be distinguished; it is reddish-grey much
blackened by the black hairs and raised spots or tubercles ;
there is a yellow longitudinal line beneath the spiracles and
a yellow transverse line across the back of the third segment.
After the second moult, as it grows, the dorsal region between
the spots becomes paler, sometimes nearly white, the spots
conspicuously black, and the yellow lateral line broader.
After the third moult the fifth and twelfth segments are
rather disproportionately large, the colouring remaining much
the same; but after the next change of skin this swelling of
the two segments disappears, and shorter whitish barbed
hairs appear, plentifully intermixed with the black ones;
from this the adult colouring is soon assumed. Some are
almost creamy white, others have a white trefoil-shaped mark
on each segment, and some have even less white colouring ;
but the hairs are mixed, black and white, and give their own
tone to the apparent colour. (Condensed from Dr. Chapman’s
Memoir.)

July, August, and September, on heather, sweet-gale, birch,

264 LEPIDOPTERA.

sallow, rose, and bramble, on heaths, but in cultivated ground
on thistle, dock, sorrel, plantain, ragwort, and low plants
generally. It has been fed up, in confinement, on poplar.
It feeds by day, and revels in the bright sunshine.

Pura elongate, anal extremity blunt and fringed with
minute bristles ; colour blackish with a purplish tinge at the
incisions. In an elongate, compact cocoon of thin papery
silk, spun up in a slight crevice in the face of a rock, among
stones, etc. (Charles Fenn). Dr. Chapman says that at the top
of the cocoon a weak place is left for emergence, silk being
there rather sparingly used, though bits of external rubbish
are brought closely together. He also remarks that the
cocoon often has bits of burnt heather attached to it—though
why larvz should select places where the heather has been
burned is not quite clear. Probably they like either the
young shoots of heather or the low plants which soon begin
to cover the burnt places. In the pupa state through the
winter.

This species does not appear to have been noticed in these
islands till the year 1846, when specimens were obtained in
Perthshire by Richard Weaver of Birmingham, then a well-
known collector for sale. Probably this indicates that, up to
that time, very little had been done in working out the
Lepidoptera of Scotland, since it is there a very well known
and widely-spread species, not only on the moors and
mountains of Perthshire, where it sits in the daytime upon
the rocks and large stones, but in Ayrshire, Dunoon, and
other parts of the Clyde district; also in Argyleshire on
moors; and in Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire, where it
is common in the cultivated districts, by the road sides, and
along the coast, and may be found sitting on walls and
palings ; also throughont the Northern counties to Suther-
landshire. In mountain districts it reaches an altitude of
2000 feet above the sea level. In Iveland it is rare, but
recorded in the counties of Cork, Kerry, Galway, and Sligo.

TRIFID A. 265

I know of no record of its capture in England or Wales.
Abroad, however, it, in various shades of colour, is very
widely distributed through the Continent of Europe, including
Southern Europe, where it even extends to Syracuse and
Turkey, becoming of a very pale colour. It is also found in
Asia Minor, Armenia and Siberia, The form of the species
fonnd in Scotland also occurs in the Alps, and is there called
var. montiaya.

11. A. rumicis, Z.—Expanse, 14 to 13 inch. Fore wings
grey, much mottled, streaked, and dotted with biack; a clear
white double spot close to the dorsal margin before the anal
angle; hind wings pale grey-brown.

Antennee of the male rather stout, simple, brown, with the
back of the shaft blackish ; palpi dark grey, the final joint
surrounded by tufts of long scales; head grey mixed with
blackish ; thorax rough with raised scales; collar nearly erect,
greyish-white tipped with black; shoulder lappets uplifted,
whitish, edged with grey and black, rest of the thorax dark
grey mixed with white and having at the back a small double
crest the tufts of which are tipped with black; abdomen
yellowish-grey, with abundant long yellowish hair-scales
covering the basal segments, of which the first also bears a
broad, dorsal, black and white crest, partially concealed by
the long scales and easily shaken off; lateral and anal tufts
mixed with dark-grey or blackish scales. Fore wings
moderately broad ; costa very slightly curved; apex blunt,
almost rounded ; hind margin curved and but little oblique ;
dorsal margin straight to near the base, where is a tuft of
dark yellow scales; colour dark grey marbled with black ;
from the base above the yellowish tuft arises a short black
streak broken and much obscured; close above it are, very
commonly, a white or greyish-white patch and some small
black lines toward the costa; first line black, duplicated,
broken into separate curves, much obscured by black

marbling; second line also obscured, deep black, consisting

266 LEPIDOPTERA.

of a series of crescents having long points upon the nervures ;
orbicular stigma indistinct, ringed with black, and containing
a central black dot; reniform stigma still more obscure, but
connected with the costa by a black line; outside the second
line is a series of ill-defined white spots near the hind margin,
and a far more distinct pair of white spots or lunules
precedes the anal angle; hind margin whitish regularly
spotted with black, the black colour extending into the
whitish cilia. Hind wings pale yellowish brown, lightest in
colour in the middle; nervures rather darker; an ill-defined
dark grey-brown band lies along the hind margin; cilia
whitish. Female a little larger and with stouter body, other-
wise quite similar.

Underside of fore wings pale-grey with darker nervures ;
costal region paler but spotted with blackish ; a small blackish
cloud lies near the costa in the middle ; cilia grey, spotted
with black. Hind wings whitish, dusted with ashy-grey ;
cilia whitish, faintly spotted with brown ; body whitish-brown;
legs with greyish-white tufts but barred in front with black.

A rather variable species in the depth and extent of the
black marbling, which in our northern and western districts
is frequently so much extended and intensified as to obliterate
the pale grey ground colour and change the whole to blackish-
grey with still deeper black markings, though the twin white
spots before the anal angle, and the white dots outside the
second line are usually constant and often conspicuous. This
variety is known by the name of salicis, and was named and
figured by Curtis asa distinct species. His figure is very
accurate, yet is quoted by Staudinger as a variety of A. menyan-
thedis, to which species it appears to bear no resemblance.
This error doubtless arises from Curtis’s figure of the larva,
which is erroneous. This variety is found even so far south
as Salop, and is said by Mr. 'T. C. Woodforde to be common
near Market Drayton. In the mosses of Lancashire it is
sometimes found having, in addition, a deeper black, broad
central band; sometimes also one of the white twin spots is

TRIFID A. 267

obliterated, and occasionally both. Some very beautiful black
forms are taken in the South of Ireland; indeed both forms
are generally distributed and co-existent in that country, and
very pale clearly marked specimens are found at Armagh and
in Down. Mr. Adkin has reared various forms, ranging from
grey to nearly jet-black with but one white spot, from eggs
laid by one of the dark forms from that country. He has
also curious pale small specimens from the Scilly Isles. A
specimen in Mr. F. J. Hanbury’s collection, and taken in
Essex, has the base and hind marginal space blackened, the
middle of the wings grey, and is very pretty.

On the wing in June and July, and occasionally, as a second
generation, in August or September.

LaRVA stout, tapering to the head from the fifth segment,
which is stout and almost humped, twelfth segment also
broadly humped, head rounded, highly polished ; body hairy,
the hairs arranged in transverse rows of bunches which arise
from the usual spots; lateral spots raised. Ground colour
black or blackish, the back velvety black: a series of couples
of red dorsal spots, two on each segment, the hinder of the
pair transversely placed ; these spots are obsolete on the last
two segments and less conspicuous on the second and third;
on the fourth, and from the sixth to the twelfth is a series of
conspicuous wedge-shaped silvery-white subdorsal blotches,
rather obliquely placed, and with the apex behind; spiracies
distinct, white ; below them a conspicuous stripe from the
fifth to the twelfth segment composed of A-shaped primrose
markings, alternating with reddish blotches; hairs pale
reddish-brown, those on the fifth segment greyish-brown ;
head and legs black ; under surface dark greyish or purplish-
brown. (C. Fenn.) Dr. Chapman has found, at Llandudno,
a curious variety of this larva— ground colour light salmon,
with some darker marblings, lateral line white, interrupted
by a salmon-coloured subspiracular tubercle; some dark
marks between the dorsal yellow dashes and subdorsal white

268 LEPIDOPTERA.

marks ; spiracles white on a dark mark extending forward to
the next incision; hairs reddish-salmon ; head black with the
large lateral area reddish, and clypeus reddish with a black
centre.”

The newly hatched larva is pale, but very soon the raised
spots or tubercles become black, and some of the segments
present the usual alternate pale and dark colouring, while the
eleventh segment is, as in the other species, weak ; the pale seg-
ments are pale reddish, the raised spots on them being ringed
with white; the dark segments brown, with reddish rings
round the raised spots. The hairs are few, either one, or five to
six, on each spot, and of unequal length, black. After the first
moult the body is darker, appearing blackish, but with the
tubercular spots ringed with paler; the fifth segment is en-
larged and the twelfth decidedly humped; the hairs longer and
more numerous. As it approaches the second moult the colour
has become fuscous-brown, and the white rings round the spots
take the form of a series of small orange-yellow spots and
blotches; those round the lower lateral tubercles almost form a
yellow lateral line. After the next change of skin it is again
black, the tubercles and more abundant black hairs leaving
nothing else visible except a reddish lateral line and some
pale markings in the hinder segments. It now begins to
sit in the peculiar attitude of the larva when full grown—
‘““head pressed flat, with the jaws forward; dorsal surface
rising thence rapidly to the hump on the fifth segment, then
falling with a hollow sweep to the eleventh, and rising
suddenly to the hump on the twelfth.” After the third moult
the fifth segment is more conspicuously humped, the general
colour is black, but there are conspicuous square white mark-
ings on the eleventh and twelth segments, and similar indica-
tions on other segments ; alsoa row of dorsal red spots, which
tend to be red transverse lines, in the incisions of the
segments; and a broad red lateral line. After the next
change of skin the larva “viewed dorsally, looks like a black
cross ina white setting; the dorsum is black and the fifth

TRIFIDZA. 269

segment with its tubercles and hairs is also black, whilst the
subdorsal hairs of the second, third, fourth and sixth segments
and onwards are whitish ; and white lozenges on the tenth,
eleventh and twelfth complete the white border toward the
tail.” The colour gradually changes till, before the following
and final moult, the adult colouring is assumed. (Condensed
from Dr. Chapman’s memoir.)

July, August and September on dock, plantain, knotgrass,
sorrel, strawberry and many other low plants, also on bramble
and sallow ; feeding by day in the hot sunshine.

Pura cylindrical to the end of the two free segments of the
abdomen, then rapidly tapering, but with the segments ridged,
the hind margin of each being raised in a smoothly rounded
projecting rib or hoop. In front are two rough knobs
situated between the bases of the antenne ; wing and limb-
covers well marked ; anal extremity conical, broadened at the
tip, with a dense brush of fine bristles. Deep blackish purple,
or black, incisions paler purple or reddish. Tightly spun up
in a tough silken cocoon covered outside with morsels of
earth, wood, moss, or rubbish, above or upon the surface of the
ground. Mr. D. UC. Campbell of Londonderry writes, “ we
noticed a strange habit in the larva. Having partially formed
its cocoon on the side or in the corner of a box it descended
to the mould below and attached its threads to many small
particles of earth; it then ascended again, and ensconsing
itself again in the cocoon, drew up the little particles around
it by means of the threads. I have watched the process from
beginning to end.” In the pupa-state through the winter.

The moth may be found occasionally, though not frequently,
on the trunk of a tree or on a paling in the daytime, but,
doubtless, it usually hides among leaves. It flies at dusk and
is readily attracted by sugar placed upon tree trunks, on
which it settles down with the utmost confidence, and may be
taken off by the hand. Not very common in the extreme
South-Hastern Counties, but occurring everywhere in suitable

270 LEPIDOPTERA.

districts in England, and in many parts, especially wooded dis-
tricts, inabundance. Formerly it was common in the outskirts
of London, but from some cause has not been noticed there
for several years. In Wales it is plentiful, to Pembrokeshire;
in Scotland generally common in both pale and dark forms ;
extending to Moray and West Ross, and in the mountains
reaching an altitude of 2000 feet above the sea-level ; also all
over [reland, and perhaps more extreme in its variations there
than in Scotland or England. Abroad it is very widely dis-
tributed all over the continent of Hurope except in the extreme
north, also in Northern Africa, Northern Asia, Turkey, China,
Japan, and the Corea, occurring in the same variations. Its
habit in this country of producing a partial second generation
in the year is confirmed, and doubtless extended, in warmer
climates, since at Gibraltar it is said to emerge from the pupa
in February.

The figures 320, 321 called “euphorbie” and “ euphrasie”
in Wood’s Jndex Entomologicus appear to refer to the dark varie-
ties of this species, as well as that of salicis in Curtis’s work.

12. A. ligustri, Schif/—Expanse 1} inch. Fore wings dark
olive-green or olive-brown, abundantly marbled with black ;
orbicular stigma paler ; a large ovate pale blotch beyond the
reniform stigma; hind wings dark grey-brown.

Antenne of the male rather short, simple, dark-brown ;
palpi tufted, whitish barred with black ; apical joint obscured
with long scales; head whitish with three black horizontal
bars; thorax mottled, black and white, the collar and
shoulder-lappets being white, broadly edged with black, the
upper surface similar, and at the back a large crest bordered
and tipped with black; fascicles of moderate size, yellowish ;
abdomen yellowish-brown with a dorsal row of four or five
black tufts or crests; lateral and anal tufts small, brownish.
Fore wings rather broad ; costa gently curved ; apex bluntly
rounded; hind margin not very oblique, and very gently
rounded, with the anal angle rather full; dorsal margin

TRIFIDZ. 271

straight to near the base; ground colour dark olive-green
or olive-brown, very much obscured with black marbling,
especially so in the basal area and in a broad ill-defined
band across the middle, otherwise rather mottled with white;
costal margin dotted with white; first line double, much
indented and greatly obscured, deep black and margining
the basal blackened region; second line also black but
indistinct and much indented ; orbicular stigma rather large,
round, white or whitish, ringed with black and centred
with blackish-brown; from it a small white blotch attains
the costa, and a series of white, or pale olive, clouds and
dashes passes to the dorsal margin; reniform stigma very
indistinct, faintly edged with black, its outer half lying in
a large ovate white blotch which occupies the greater part
of the apical region from the costa to below the middle,
and is much rippled with blackish cloudy lines; it also
contains a small slender dagger-streak, and is often followed
by cloudy white blotches similarly rippled toward the hind
margin and apex ; hind margin ornamented with a slender
white line placed in crescents which enclose black spots;
cilia whitish with large regularly placed black spots. Hind
wings pale grey-brown, darker toward the hind margin, and
with obscurely browner nervures; cilia grey-brown tipped
with white. Female very similar, slightly stouter.

Underside of the fore wings dark grey in the middle,
paler at the margins, and the costa spotted with black ;
cilia white with round deep black spots. Hind wings
whitish dusted with grey; central spot dark-brown followed
by a slender, curved, dark grey transverse stripe; a dark
grey cloud lies along the anal angle; cilia whitish with
large brown spots.’ Body dusky pale brown, legs whitish
with large black bars.

Variation in this species appears to be in a great degree
climatal; the more‘northern and western districts producing
forms in which the ground colour isof a deeper olive-green,
or deep olive-brown or even almost purplish-black; the

ok Fes LEPIDOPTERA.

transverse lines double and the other dark markings intensi-
fied ; broken black clouds lying between the nervures; the
white markings obliterated, or only existing as faint dashes
between the double transverse lines, at the edge of the
stigmata, and in small scallops along the hind margin;
and the usual large ovate blotch obliterated; the hind
wings and underside also darker, Almost every inter-
mediate shade of variation also occurs, or the white mark-
ings are replaced by yellow, and in many the white ring of
the orbicular stigma is very distinct. These dark forms are
sometimes called collectively by the name of var. coronula, a
name which Haworth appears to have used to designate a grey
variety which he looked on as a distinct species. There is in
the collection of Dr. Mason a specimen in which the base of
the wing to the first line is strongly tinged with yellow.
On the wing in June and July.

Larva nearly cylindrical, tapering but little at each end
except that the head is decidedly smaller than the second
segment; not very hairy, a single hair only arising from
each raised spot. Very clear, semi-transparent, glaucous
green, so that the internal vessels are visible; the head
especially transparent, green with the mouth brownish ;
dorsal line yellow or white, very slender, sometimes only
visible on the middle segments; subdorsal lines narrow,
yellow, complete; spiracles pink or orange ; raised spots
very small, black ; legs and prolegs green.

Dr. Chapman says that when newly hatched it is whitish
or colourless, except the head, which soon becomes black
with the jaws brown; the raised spots are slightly outlined
in a darker shade; each has a single hair which is greyish
at the base; the raised spots or tubercles do not appear
crowded as in young larve of the allied species, but the
eleventh segment is flatter than the rest, as in them, and
its spots and hairs smaller, After the first moult the head
becomes greenish with a large black shade over the upper

TRIFIDZ. 273

portion, and the yellow stripes begin to appear. After
another change of skin the head is still paler, but with a
distinct black lunule on each side, the yellow stripes are more
distinct, and the general colour has become a pale apple-
green. When about to moult the new hairs beneath the skin
are readily seen, folded across the back in a regular pattern.
After this stage there is little alteration in appearance, except
that the adult colouring is soon assumed.

August and September on ash, privet, and occasionally hazel.
Apparently it feeds mostly at night, since it is always found
in the daytime resting on the underside of a leaf and usually
stretched along its midrib, or even along the petiole of an
ash leaf, its more usual food. Here, Dr. Chapman says it is
difficult to see, its form and colour assimilating it so closely
to the leaf-stalk or rib on which it rests.

Pura short and thick, cylindrical or a little the broadest
across the base of the abdomen, but tapering very rapidly off
to the anal extremity, which is broadly and bluntly pointed
and provided with eight stout points hooked downward ; there
is a decided protrusion in front of the rounded thoracic por-
tion. ‘The back of the abdominal rings is, in such, sculptured
into furrows or channels, two on each, and the pupa is in most
respects very unlike those of its congeners. Its colour is
brown, clouded with black on the back. In a cocoon of dark,
nearly black silk, in one dense layer of considerable strength,
but without any mixture of extraneous material; adhering, if
possible, to some neighbouring object, and irregular in shape.
Very frequently the cocoon has a valvular slit, apparently as
a provision for the exit of the moth. Often it is spun up
under moss on the trunk of a tree, or else attached to a stem
or leaf at the surface of the ground. (Condensed from Dr.
Chapman’s memoir.) In this condition through the winter.

The moth usually sits in the daytime on the branch of a
tree and may occasionally be knocked off, when it falls, as
though dead, to the ground. It flies at dusk and comes to

VOL. III. 8

274 LEPIDOPTERA.

sugar on tree trunks, sitting down perfectly quietly. Its
habits are quite like those of other species in the genus,
but in many small details of structure in its stages of growth
it differs from them to such an extent that its removal alone
into a separate section of the genus, by Dr. Chapman appears
to be fully justified. It is not a very common species, but
widely distributed, occurring where ash is common in almost
every English and Welsh county, though in many of them
local or uncommon. Also widely scattered in Scotland,
through the district of the Solway, the Clyde and the Tweed,
Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire and Moray, and even common
in Perthshire and Ross-shire. Very much more local in
Treland, since it is only recorded from Galway, where it has
been met with in several localities.

Abroad it is found throughout Central Europe, the
temperate portions of Northern Europe, Southern France and
Southern Russia.

Genus 3. ARSILONCHE.

Antenne simple, ciliated; eyes naked, with prostrate
lashes at the back; head tufted; thorax covered with long,
loosely prostrate scales, not crested; abdomen smooth ; fore
wings long and rather pointed ; hind wings not very ample,
vein 5 very slender and weak, arising from an angle in the
middle of the cross-bar.

Larv& hairy, brightly coloured

We have only one species.

1. A. Venosa, Lkh.; Albovenosa, Staud. Cat.—Ex-
panse 1} to 1? inch. Fore wings pointed, reddish white,
with two or three longitudinal brown or blackish lines ; hind
wings pure white.

Antennze of the male stout, simple, brown in front, back of
the shaft white; palpi tufted to the tips, whitish with a brown
dash on the outer side ; head and thorax whitey-brown, loosely

TRIFIDZ. 275

scaled; collar and shoulder lappets a little raised; no real crest

at the back, though the long thoracic scales are drawn together

into a faint knob; abdomen rather long, white, covered with

long white scales which rise in ridges not amounting to crests,

on the back of several of the segments; lateral and anal

tufts dense and spreading. Fore wings rather narrow and

pointed ; costa gently curved to the apex, which is sharply

angulated; hind margin slightly hollowed below it, then

obliquely and gracefully rounded off to the dorsal margin,

which is. also curved. Colour whitish, abundantly dusted
with pale brown or pale reddish scales, and with longitudinal

faintly brownish stripes, occupying the spaces between the

nervures ; a slender dark-brown or blackish longitudinal line,
from the middle of the base, extends in a faint curve beyond
the middle of the dorsal portion of the wing and sometimes
nearly attains the hind margin; another of a paler brown, ’
above it, lies along the upper side of the median nervure,
through the middle of the wing; these two streaks being the
only conspicuous markings. Cilia white with a faint brownish
dividing line. Hind wings pure clear white; cilia similar.
Female much stouter and with the fore wings more pointed
and frequently longer; otherwise similar. Underside white,
faintly dusted with yellowish atoms along the costal margins
of all the wings; fore wings with a row of slender black

dashes at the base of the cilia; body white; legs brownish,

browner in front.

Slightly variable in the degree of reddish, or brownish
tinge on the fore wings and more so in the length and
intensity of the dark longitudinal lines.

On the wing in June.

Larva nearly cylindrical but flattened beneath; rather
thickly covered with very soft short hairs; head rather large,
rounded, black, with a large white triangle on the face, and
a pair of converging white lines above it; body pale yellowish
dusted with black, with a broad black dorsal line, sometimes

276 LEPIDOPTERA.

interrupted at the junction of the segments; subdorsal stripe
broad, blackish-brown, interrupted by a series of large
blotches—orange-red above, orange-yellow below, and with
small white markings at the segmental divisions; under-
surface pale greyish or whitish ; hairs mixed black and white;
legs and prolegs pinkish.

Dr. Chapman says that the newly hatched larva is whitish
but soon gets darker, the head becoming black, and the fifth,
eighth, ninth and twelfth segments brown, while the remainder
continue pale, the raised spots are distinctly larger and darker
on the dark segments, but very small on tke eleventh ; they
have from one to three long hairs apiece. As in other
Species constituting the section Viminia, these spots are very
large, crowded, and black after each moult; and segment
eleven is depressed and weak. After the second moult the
colour is rufous marbled in two shades; the fifth sezment is
now the largest and from it the larva tapers behind. After
the third moult the colours are black and orange, with bluish
grey sides and a yellow subdorsal stripe; the dorsal area
being of a blackish-brown, and the hairs are still long. From
this the adult form is gradually assumed, the inequality of size
in the fifth and eleventh segments disappearing altogether,
and the hairs assuming their shorter length.

July to September on common reed (Arwndo phragmites)
and sometimes on Poa aquatica and other coarse fen grasses.
Feeding openly upon the reed leaves in the early evening
and at night, but usually concealing itself lower down upon
the plants in the daytime.

Pura much like that of <Acronycta rumiis but more
slender; the marginal hoops of the six abdominal segments
very distinct and pronounced ; apical segmeuts very shortly
and rapidly tapered off; anal point with a bunch of bristles.
In a thin slender cocoon of whitish silk among dead grass-
leaves, bits of reed, drawn-together reed leaves, or among
rubbish near the ground. (Condensed from Dr. Chapman.)

TRIFIDE. 277

Mr. E. Newman noticed that larvee which he reared, cut
a number of blades of grasses upon which they happened to
have been feeding, into short lengths of an inch or an inch
and a quarter, and then spinning a cocoon, generally between
two principal stems of the grass or reed, thatched it with the
small cut-off pieces, leaving no part of the silk visible.

In the pupa state through the winter.

This moth differs altogether in appearance from those
of the preceding genus. Its colour and markings, like
those of so very many other fen-frequenting species, being
accurately suited to its habit of hiding in the daytime among
the dead leaves of reed, sedge, and marsh grasses. Yet its
larva and pupa so closely agree with those of one section of
that genus that Dr. Chapman includes it with them, as already
stated, in the section Viminia. It flies at dusk, and at night,
and may occasionally be taken flying, or at a strong light,
but does not appear very susceptible to the attractions of
sugar. Sometimes it may be found at night sitting upon the
upper parts of the reeds. Strictly a fen-frequenting insect,
widely distributed in those of Norfolk, and tolerably common
in Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire. Formerly in all the Cam-
bridgeshire fens, and doubtless at one time throughout that
extensive region in which Hereward so long kept the Norman
Conqueror at bay. Abundant at Whittlesea Mere, when that
grand preserve of the fen insects still existed. Also recorded
from St. Ives, Hunts; Wisbech; and in some small remains of
fens in Suffolk. This appears to be the extent of its present
range in these islands. Abroad it is found in similar situations,
in Holland, Germany, Northern and Eastern France, Hungary,
Bulgaria, Central and Southern Russia, and in North America,

Genus 4. AGROTIS.

Antennee either pectinated in part, notched, or naked ; eyes
naked, lashes prostrate ; thorax crested, though in some cases
but faintly so ; abdomen smooth, usually rather flattened ; fore

278 LEPIDOPTERA.

wings long, narrow, usually somewhat blunt, in repose laid flat
on the body and rather overlapping ; hind wings rather ample,
of thin texture, deeply folded in repose and with vein 5 very
weak, originating from the middle of the cross-bar.

Larv& not hairy, thick-skinned and shining, of dirty
colours, but with glossy raised spots, and with horny dorsal
and anal plates. Hiding by day under the surface of the
ground, feeding at night on grass and low growing plants.

Pup# of ordinary form, but with two diverging anal spikes ;
subterranean.

The transition to this group of comparatively plain-looking
species of more typical Noctuw appears somewhat abrupt,
but the connection of this with the genus Acronycta through
exotic species is very close. Variation in some of the species
is so extremely wide that a satisfactory table seems to be
impracticable.

1. A. valligera, Hiib.; vestigialis, Staud. Cat. Ex-
panse, 14 inch. Antenne of male pectinated; fore wings
pale brown ; stigmata all conspicuous, dark, divided by an
oblique pale stripe; hind margin dark brown, preceded by
black wedges ; hind wings whitish.

Antenne of the male pectinated with solid teeth in nearly
opposite rows, the teeth ciliated, tapering off shorter beyond
the middle of the shaft, so as quite to disappear and leave the
apex threadlike; olive-brown, the shaft paler. Head and
palpi strongly tufted, olive-brown, blotched with white ; collar
very broad, pale olive-brown or reddish-brown, barred with
darker brown, and edged with white; shoulder lappets con-
spicuously whitish, edged with brown; remainder of thorax
covered with very long pale olive-brown scales, tinged with
deeper brown or reddish, and partially erected so as to form
small top and back crests, the tips of which are whitish ;
fascicles long, white; base of abdomen covered with long

TRIFIDZ, 279

loose whitish scales, remainder pale brown; lateral tufts in-
conspicuous ; anal tuft long and narrow, pale reddish. Fore
wings narrow, almost truncate ; costal margin straight, apex
squarely angulated; hind margin, below it, straight, but
elbowed in the middle and curved off at the anal angle;
dorsal margin gently curved; colour drab, or very pale olive-
brown or reddish-brown ; all the nervures edged with white,
the median broadly so; basal line indicated by two blackish
streaks edged with white; first line incomplete, formed of
one, two, or three black curved streaks edged inwardly with
white, not approaching the costa; second line oblique, a
little bent but obscure, composed of ill-defined black cres-
cents edged outwardly with white; subterminal line white,
preceded by a row of black wedges pointing inward, but
usually obsolete toward the costa; hind margin clouded with
dark brown and edged with flat black lunules; orbicular
stigma small but distinct, ovate, whitish, edged with black ;
reniform stigma large and conspicuous, clouded with dark
brown and bordered with black; between them is a rather
squared blackish or brown spot in the discal cell; claviform
stigma long and large, like a canine tooth, dark purple-brown
edged with black ; between this and the two upper stigmata
a broad oblique stripe of pale ground colour, arising at the
base of the wing, and sometimes branched along the costa, is
very conspicuous and ‘reliable; costa edged usually with
broken blackish streaks ; cilia long, whitish, chequered with
brown dashes. Hind wings very slightly hollowed below the
apex, otherwise rounded ; glossy white with a brown central
lunule, brownish nervures, and a slender pale grey transverse
stripe along the hind margin and extending itself more
broadly along the apex and costal region ; hind margin usually
dotted with brown or black; cilia pure shining white.

Fore wings of the female rather narrower and more ob-
securely coloured, dark brown or dark olive-brown, nervures
blacker and hardly edged with whitish, except the median,
which is bordered by the usual broad oblique pale stripe ; the

280 LEPIDOPTERA.

edges of the transverse lines are also usually pale, that of the
first line more especially so, as also is the interior of the
orbicular stigma and the inner edge of the reniform stigma ;
hind wings grey-brown, sometimes more whitish toward the
base, but with grey nervures.

Under side of the fore wings glossy pale grey, the whole
surface of the discal cell covered with long soft hairlike scales ;
reniform stigma black, followed by a curved dark grey trans-
verse stripe and a parallel whitish stripe ; nervures whitish ;
cilia whitish, tipped with grey. Hind wings white, with a
large grey central spot, beyond it a curved transverse row of
grey streaks, and at the apex a grey cloud ; margin streaked
with black; cilia white. Body dark brown, tufted with
whitish scales; leg tufts large, brownish white; legs very
bristly, dark brown, barred with white.

Rather variable. In the male the ground colour is some-
times whitish drab, and in such specimens all the markings
are occasionally obscured and indistinct, so that the fore
wings are nearly unicolorous, but in other cases the stigmata
are all strongly marked, while the other markings are almost
obliterated. Olive-brown specimens are sometimes as ob-
scurely or as sharply marked, and frequently the black spot
between the two upper stigmata is obliterated.. The more
reddish forms are commonly well marked, showing the lines,
stigmata, and hind marginal wedges to great perfection, and
frequently these specimens are of slightly larger size. In the
female the range of variation in colour is quite as great ;
these are occasionally of a pale drab, but more often dark red-
brown or deep olive-brown, sometimes clouded with blackish,
especially toward the middle of the dorsal margin, in others
richly clouded with reddish, while the pale oblique stripe
comes out most conspicuously ; the stigmata are large and
very dark, in a deep brown stripe, and the hind marginal
wedges and clouds very sharply defined. Sometimes a dark
cloud along the costa unites with the upper stigma, in other
cases the subcostal region is conspicuously pale. The thorax

TRIFIDA. 281

varies in depth of colour in conformity with the fore wings,
and the hind wings in both sexes follow suit—from clear,
pure white in the palest males to pale greyish brown in the
darkest; and in the females from pale grey, varied with
white, to dark grey. Occasionally, in both sexes, the fore
wings are tinged with grey rather than brown. There is also
a tendency to local variation, a peculiar faint shade of um-
breous, for instance, in Lancashire specimens, differing a little
from the various shades observable on other coasts, while in
the south-west are seen rather brighter shades of reddish.
All the variations melt insensibly into each other; it appears
impossible to draw any definite lines of variation ; yet the
species has been loaded with varietal or synonymic names—
sagittiferus, trigonalis, clavis, clavifera, and others—which
seem to have no definite application and to be of little im-
portance:

On the wing in July and August; in very early seasons,
and warm districts, occasionally before the end of June, but
apparently in but a single generation.

Larva smooth, shining, naked, moderately plump, two
inches in length, pale olive-grey, rather tinged with brownish
or purplish on the back ; head yellowish brown; dorsal plate
brownish, barred with blackish brown or purplish brown ;
dorsal and subdorsal lines darker grey or purplish grey,
double, rather obscure ; ordinary raised spots and spiracles
black ; under surface very pale grey.

August to May, apparently dormant only in very cold
weather, feeding during the milder portions of the winter;
on grasses, various species of Galiwm, Alsine, and other low
plants growing on sand hills; hiding itself in the daytime
at a depth of one or two inches beneath the surface of the
sand, but coming out at night to feed. Will eat lettuce and
dandelion.

Pupa pale reddish brown, beneath the surface of the sand.

282 LEPIDOPTERA.

The moth hides itself in the daytime among Ammophila
and other coarse grasses on the sand-hills, and very frequently
among the overhanging masses of grass roots in any place
where the sand has fallen, or been blown away, leaving such
shelter available. At dusk it flies freely, and may be attracted
by sugar placed on twisted masses of grasses. It, how-
ever, greatly prefers flowers, especially those of the common
ragwort (Senecio jacobea) and of the marram-grass (Ammo-
phila arundinacea). Apparently its flight is mainly at dusk
and during the early part of the night—perhaps again towards
morning. Its habits in the daytime are in some degree
affected by the weather; when this is moderately cool or
damp and cloudy the moth is quite sluggish, and when shaken
out of its hiding-place will roll down upon the sand; but if
the sun is hot it bustles up when disturbed, and flies vigor-
ously to a safer hiding-place. In rare instances, in intensely
hot weather, it will fly voluntarily throughout the afternoon,
and I have seen it under such circumstances in scores flying
to, and feeding from, the blossoms of Scabiosa arvensis, Cen-
taurea, Silene, Crepis, and other plants.

Usually attached to sandy coasts, especially where an
extensive range of sand-hills has accumulated and become
covered with coarse grasses. Common in such situations on
the coasts of the Eastern and Southern Counties, but less so
toward the South-west. In Dorset it seems to be scarce, and
also in Somerset and Gloucestershire; but more frequent. in
Devon, on both North and South coasts, and in Cornwall. I
have taken it, though rarely, in Pembrokeshire, but have no
record from other parts of South Wales, where it surely
must occur. Rather common on the coasts of Lancashire
and Cheshire and also of Yorkshire, where also it has been
taken, rarely, inland. In Scotland it has been found in
Ayrshire, at Ardrossan, all suitable places on the East
coast to Morayshire, and in the Orkneys—where it is quite
as pale in colour as in the south of England. Widely
distributed on the Irish coast—Dnublin, Antrim, Derry,

TRIFID 4. 283

Donegal, Sligo, and probably in all suitable places, but not
very common and in some situations even rare.

Besides the coasts there is one inland locality in which it
'-is plentiful—the extensive sandy district known as the
“Breck Sand” in the western portions of Norfolk and
Suffolk, round Thetford, Brandon, Bury St. Edmunds and
Tuddenham. These sands are supposed to have been the
ancient coast when the sea extended from the Wash over the
whole of the present Fen district, and here the present
species, with several of its coast companions, is still found.
There is a record of its occurrence even on the border of
Huntingdonshire. Casual specimens also find their way on
to the sandy heaths which lie near the sea in the neighbour-
hood of King’s Lynn.

Abroad it is widely distributed in Central, and especially
in Northern Europe ; also in the North of Italy, Corsica, and
the South of France.

2. A. suffusa, Hiib.; ypsilon, Stawd. Cat.—xpanse
13 to 2 inches.

Antenne pectinated. Fore wings very long, dull brown,
clouded to beyond the middle with dark brown; outside the
reniform stigma is a distinct black wedge. Hind wings
shining greyish-white with dark nervures.

Antennz of the male long and strongly pectinated with
solid ciliated teeth in nearly opposite rows, but tapering off
from the middle of the shaft, so that the apical portion, for
one-third of the whole length, is threadlike ; colour dark
brown. Palpi short, with strong separated tufts of scales on
the first and second joints, by which the third joint is almost
concealed; dark grey dusted with blackish. Head tufted,
purplish-brown streaked with black ; eyes edged at the back
with mixed black and white lashes which are nearly
prostrate. Collar raised, brown, barred strongly in front
with black, above this paler purplish-brown; remainder of
thorax pale purplish-brown, or pale brown dusted with

284 LEPIDOPTERA.

darker, and having at the back a very insignificant crest.
Fascicles very long, broad and converging, smoky-white ;
abdomen smoky-brown, with long paler scales; lateral and
anal tufts similar, small. Fore wings long and narrow,
costal and dorsal margins very straight, apex blunt, hind
margin rounded, rather full or almost bluntly angulated in
the middle; colour pale brown with a faint reddish gloss;
clouded along the costal region with smoky-black ; extreme
costal edge usually marked with five or six yellow dots;
basal line very indistinct, blackish, edged faintly with yellow-
ish ; first line perpendicular, duplicated, blackish, looped and
repeatedly angulated ; second line far beyond the middle of
the wing and nearly perpendicular, formed of an almost
straight double row of small blackish lunules followed by a
row of minute black dots; between the first and second
lines, but nearer the latter, is a cloudy, blackish, transverse
shade of varying width, often slender, sometimes broad and
throwing a dark clouding back toward the base; orbicular
stigma round or ovate, or with a projection outward, small,
edged with black and centred with grey; reniform stigma
also edged with black and containing a dark cloud edged
inwardly with black; space between these two stigmata
usually blackened; from the outerside of the reniform
stigma a deep black, wedge-shaped streak points toward the
hind margin; claviform stigma small, obscure, edged with
blackish ; subterminal line, when visible, yellowish-brown,
very deeply zigzagged, especially in the middle, where it
throws off short black streaks pointing inward, two of these
forming deep black wedges exactly facing the black streak
from the reniform stigma; often, however, the pale subter-
minal line is broken into spots, though the black streaks are
still present ; hind margin clouded with dark brown and
edged with slender black lunules; cilia light brown clouded
with darker. Hind wings very ample and rather elongated ;
apex bluntly angulated; margin beneath it slightly hollowed,
then fully rounded ; pearly white, edged with greyish-brown,

TRIFIDA. 285

sometimes faintly clouded with the same; nervures sharply
brown ; cilia white.

Female larger, usually having the entire space between
the first and second lines clouded with smoky-brown or
dull blackish, and the markings—except the black wedges—
less distinct; hind wings usually much more clouded with
brown.

Underside of the fore wings shining smoky-grey ; costa
paler, but with two dark indistinct lines near the apex.
middle area abundantly covered with long raised downy
scales; a row of blackish lunules along the hind margin ;
cilia brownish. Hind wings pearly white, thickly dusted
with grey along the costal region; hind margin edged with
dark brown. Body, and leg tufts, mottled with brownish and
whitish; legs long, plentifully furnished with spur-like
bristles, legs and bristles dark brown barred with white.

Very constant in colour and markings, but in the female
the dark colouring of the middle of the fore wings is in some
cases extended to the base, so that two-thirds of the length
of the wing is black-brown. On the other hand the male is
occasionally of a pale brownish-drab, with only the costal
region and stigmata dark. Specimens from Ireland appear
to show a tendency to pale variation. Dr. P. B. Mason
possesses a specimen of less than one-half the ordinary size,
and very pale in colour.

On the wing from the end of July till September, and
probably after hybernation, and not as another generation,
in April and May. It has been found on the wing as early
as lebruary, and eggs have been obtained from a captured
specimen in March.

Larva more than two inches long, stout, smooth and
shining, very pale purplish-brown, paler beneath, sometimes
with the under-surface and legs pale grey, usual spots
blackish, shining, sometimes grey, each furnished with
a short bristle. Dorsal line double, slender, greyish, on each

286 LEPIDOPTERA.

side a row of rather larger black dots, below which is some-
times a series of slender greyish longitudinal lines. Head
shining black, face with two white spots, dorsal plate of the
body-colour, or else spotted with black.

April to July on low plants, or on the succulent portions
of cultivated plants such as mangold-wurzel, into the solid
substance of which it loves to gnaw. Hiding in the ground
in the daytime, and at night only protruding itself far enough
from the ground to obtain food, as to which it probably is
not dainty, eating the leaves of various low-growing plants.
So far as can be ascertained, there appears to be but one
generation in the year. I can find no record of the larva in
autumn or winter, though it may probably be feeding in
forward seasons as early as March or even February.

Pura of ordinary form, red-brown, subterranean.

The question of the single or double-broodedness of this
species was argued with some earnestness thirty years ago,
and I do not find that much has been added to our know-
ledge on the subject since that period. The remarks of the
late Rev. J. Hellins, written in 1862, are interesting: “From
a pair of moths taken last March, and shut up in a box, I
obtained a batch of eggs; as soon as these appeared I sowed
some radish-seed in a large flower-pot, thinking the larve
would like roots, however, when they hatched, the larve
confined their attention solely to the radish /eaves, and fed
on them for some time till I thought of giving them lettuce;
this they seemed to like much better and fed upon it very
well; most ungratefully escaping at the bottom of the pot as
soon as they were full-fed, only one remaining to undergo
his changes in the place where he had been born and
brought up. Though these larve did not eat the roots
provided for them, I should say they were strictly subterra-
nean in their habits.” ‘ Sujffusa I know hybernates in the
perfect state, but it does not pair till the spring.” I think
that Mr. Hellins was right. It is hardly likely that, if

TRIFID. 287

double-brooded, and the second generation on the wing in
September, the first would be out in March!

The moth hides, in the daytime, among leaves or plants on
the ground, or in sheltered situations such as thatch, and is
only seen by daylight when tumbled out from such a shelter.
It flies swiftly at dusk and after dark, comes freely to
sugared trees, and is very fond of ivy-bloom and even of
ripe blackberries, hanging to the bunches of over-ripe fruit
on warm autumn nights, till very late. It is somewhat
irregular in its appearances, abundant in some seasons, com-
paratively scarce in others, and is found in greater or
less numbers all over the Hast, South and South-west of
England, as well as in the fen districts; also in less numbers
throughout the Midlands, and generally in Herefordshire,
Cheshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire. In Cumberland and
Westmoreland it seems to be scarce. This also appears to be
the case in Scotland, where it is recorded in Roxburghshire,
Stirlingshire, Perthshire, and casually throughout that
country, occurring even in the Hebrides, and rarely in
Shetland. It also seems to be found in all parts of Ireland
to the extreme north, and in some districts commonly.

Abroad its distribution is very wide—all parts of Europe
except the extreme north; Hgypt, Siberia, Western Asia
generally, India, China, Japan, Java, Nova Scotia, Canada,
part of the United States, indeed, all North America from
Hudson’s Bay to Georgia and Texas; also in New Zealand
and Honolulu.

[A. crassa, Hiib.; lata, 7r.—Of this rather widely dis-
tributed Continental species, which occurs in France, and of
which Mr. A. Hodges has obtained examples even in
Guernsey, a single specimen exists in the cabinet of Mr. §S.
Stevens. It was received among a lot of common species
taken at Dover, and had most likely been accidentally
introduced from abroad. No other specimen seems to have
occurred. |

288 LEPIDOPTERA.

3. A. segetum, Schi/—Hxpanse 1} to 12 inch.

Antennee of the male pectinated; fore wings narrow,
obtuse, pale brown with darker stigmata in the male,
blackish in the female; hind wings of male clear white, of
female greyish with darker nervures.

Antenne of the male strongly pectinated with slender,
solid, ciliated teeth, which diminish in length beyond the
middle, leaving the apical third of the antenna threadlike ;
dark brown. Palpi almost hidden by dense drooping tufts
of long brown scales. Head tufted, light brown, barred
with darker; lower front of the collar dark brown edged
above with black, leaving the remainder pale brown;
shoulder-lappets pale brown, dusted with dark brown and
black ; remainder of thorax pale brown, the scales raised
narrowly in the middle into a slender double crest from the
collar to the back; fascicles very long, whitish; abdomen
whitish-brown plentifully covered with long paler scales ;
lateral tufts small, anal tuft narrow, light brown. Fore
wings rather narrow, costal and dorsal margins nearly
straight, apex very blunt, hind margin bluntly rounded and
very little oblique; colour pale brown much dusted with
dark brown atoms; costa clouded and spotted with black ;
basal line double, black, deeply toothed, extending only half-
way across the wing from the costa ; first line perpendicular,
black, duplicated and rather indented, but with the dupli-
cate line fainter; second line less distinct, blackish, con-
sisting of a series of small crescents with long points,
through which passes a more direct parallel line, both are
curved inward and then back before attaining the costa;
subterminal line, when visible, a row of pale cloudy dots
edged inside by a line of blackish cloudy spots; orbicular
stigma ovate, edged and centred with blackish, but often
obscure or hardly visible; reniform stigma more distinct,
edged with blackish and nearly filled up with black-brown ;
claviform stigma small, edged with black, but inconspicuous ;

TRIFIDZ. 289

hind marginal space sometimes clouded with dark brown ;
extreme edge obscurely dotted with black ; subcostal region
and space round the stigmata often clouded with darker
brown, which in some instances extends across the wing as
a dark central shade; cilia shining brown, divided by a
darker line. Hind wings rather ample; apex and hind
margin rounded; shining, clear, transparent white, nervures
sometimes faintly tinged with brown; extreme hind margin
brownish ; cilia white.

Female very different in colour, which in it is usually dark
umbreous, grey-brown, or blackish brown, nearly uni-
colorous, with the markings so obscured as to be barely
visible ; but occasionally it is paler umbreous, with darker
nervures, and the markings more distinct, the dark reni-
form stigma especially so; cilia always light brown, almost
yellow-brown at their base, but divided by the dark
line. Hind wings clouded with grey-brown, especially
alone the hind margin; nervures dark brown ; cilia white.
Head and thorax sometimes dark-coloured in accordance
with the fore wings, often paler. Not very similar to the
male.

Underside of the fore wings in the male shining whitish,
the whole under surface of the discal cell downy with long
erey scales; beyond the middle is a white transverse band,
followed by a grey line. Hind wings white, with the costal
region broadly dusted with grey, and a grey line along the
hind margin, cilia white. Body dark grey mixed with
whitish, anal tuft browner; leg tufts dense, purplish-brown
in front, white behind ; legs long and bristly, dark brown,
barred with white. In the female the underside of the
wings is but little darker, but the body and leg tufts are
more smoky-grey, the front legs blackish, with white bars,
and the hinder legs whiter.

In the male the ground colour occasionally varies to pale
drab or even to whitish-grey, and in this, and the paler brown
forms, the markings are in some instances very sharp and

VOL. III. 7

290 LEPIDOPTERA.

distinct, so much so as to give the impression of another,
more beautifully marked, species, the second line resembling
a graceful necklace of fine markings, and the whole appear-
ance being so elegant that some difficulty is found in recog-
nising the usually homely dingy insect. In other cases the
male varies to dull dark brown, with a darker central shade,
and obscure markings as in the female. In that sex the
variation is equally great, from pale grey, much dusted with
darker, and having a conspicuous pale yellow or whitish sub-
terminal line, through various shades of obscure brown to
smoky black, but in neither sex do the hind wings vary
much. Casual aberrations are almost endless. In the collec-
tion of the late Mr. F. Bond is a spotless pale brown male,
and also a coal-black female. In that of Dr. P. B. Mason, a
female of grey colour with the two transverse lines dis-
tinctly double, and black, but enclosing white lines ; another
of an extremely pale slate-grey, devoid of markings; and a
male of one half the usual dimensions. In that or Mr.
Sydney Webb, a female of a smooth pale slate colour, with a
singular soft bloom ; and two others of a peculiar grey-brown,
much dusted with darker grey, having the transverse lines
very distinct, and in one placed much further apart than in
the other. Mr. 8. J. Capper has a male most exquisitely
shaded with grey, the lines black, edged with white, and the
orbicular stigma white ringed; another, brown with the
orbicular stigma greatly elongated, and united by a narrow
neck to the reniform stigma; while another, of a very pale
brown, has a black central shade. Mr. Arthur Robinson has
a greyish white male, shaded with dark grey at the apex and
around the reniform stigma. Mr. F. J. Hanbury has some
pale brown males with remarkably rich markings and dark
hind-marginal clouding, and one of exquisite beauty, of a
smooth clear pale brown, with the first and second lines
elaborated into series of long distinct loops, or scallops with
long points, and the reniform stigma very well marked. In
the collection of Mr. A. C. Vine is a female of a peculiar

TRIFID A. 291

purple-grey colour, all the nervures and the dorsal margin
striped longitudinally with dark grey.

On the wing, in multitudes, in June, and sometimes in
small numbers, and, as a second generation, in September
and October. But in the year 1884 Mr. HE. A. Atmore noticed
it at King’s Lynn, after being, as usual, plentiful in the early
summer, to be again abundant through the latter half of
August and September. There is, however, no reason to
believe that these autumn specimens remain alive through
the winter.

LARVA smooth and rather shining, greyish white, or pale
purplish grey, or pinkish grey, with the under surface and
legs faintly yellowish-brown; head light brown, with two
black or brown bars down the face; mouth white ; dorsal
plate shining, pale brown or pale grey, dorsal and subdorsal
lines double, grey, but indistinct, and sometimes obscured
with greyish clouding; spiracles black; raised dots grey,
shining, each furnished with a single short bristle.

July to April, feeding through the milder portions of the
winter and torpid only in cold weather. But a small propor-
tion appear to feed rapidly up by the middle of August, pro-
ducing the moths in the same autumn. Whether these pair
and deposit eggs in late autumn, and so reinforce the great
army of wintering larve by their additional progeny, is not
known, but there is no reason to suppose that this is not the
case. On turnip, dock, plantain, grass, green corn, and pro-
bably on almost every low growing herbaceous plant. Pro-
bably no species of larva is more mischievous and destructive
in cultivated fields and gardens. It hides in the ground
during the day, and comes only just to the surface at night,
when it especially loves to gnaw young plants, close to the
surface, in such a manner as to cause them to droop and die.
It does not seem to devour roots under ground, but the large
bulb of a turnip is its especial delight when tending toward
full growth. In this respect it is a dangerous foe to the

292 LEPIDOPTERA.

farmer, gnawing its way into the solid turnip from the under-
side, and feeding in the hollow night after night, until decay
sets in and the turnip is destroyed. Mr. Newman, in his
‘‘ British Moths,” has a most effective illustration of a turnip,
in the underside of which, in a large cavity, are ensconced
no less than eight well-grown larvee of this species. In corn-
fields the injury done is equally great, the young plants being
bitten off and left upon the ground. Carrots, swede turnips,
beet, cabbage, mustard, and other cultivated plants, as well
as seedlings in gardens, are equally to its taste, and in its
more abundant years the loss occasioned by it is at times
very heavy—especially in countries in which its natural
enemies, the birds, are discouraged. It is an object of special
attention to economic entomologists, and the plans and nos-
trums devised for its abatement are very numerous. Kollar
says that the Russian Government advertised for a prize
essay on the means of its destruction ; and it was the subject
ot an essay for which a prize was given by the Entomological
Society of London between fifty and sixty years ago.

Pura of ordinary form, reddish-brown, beneath the
surface of the ground in a small earthen chamber.

The moth hides in the daytime upon the ground among
grass, weeds, or dead leaves, or on banks among dry roots,
and in almost any closely concealed situation. If disturbed
it runs away swiftly or kicks its way from place to place
with its strong bristly hind legs. At dusk it flies, and also
during the night, visiting flowers and honey-dew on the
leaves of trees, and comes to sugar upon tree trunks in such
numbers at times as almost to cover the patches, and drive
away more desirable visitors.

Abundant throughout England and Ireland, also in the
south and east of Scotland, but apparently much less
trequent in the west and north-west of that country, and not
recorded from the Scottish Isles. Sir Thomas Moncrieff
says that it ascends the hills to about an altitude of 600 feet

LRIETD A, 293

above the sea-level. It is plentiful almost all over Europe,
and at Gibraltar is known to be regularly double brooded.
Also abundant in South Africa, throughout Northern,
Eastern, and Western Asia, India and Ceylon.

4. A. corticea, Hiib.—EHxpanse 1} to 14 inch. Antenne
of male broadly pectinated; fore wings obtuse, pale brown
in the male, with conspicuous dark stigmata, the reniform
almost round, the claviform pale within ; female often darker ;
hind wings grey-brown.

The antenne of the male are strongly pectinated with
long, solid, ciliated teeth, which decrease in length beyond the
middle, disappearing at three-fourths the length, the re-
maining fourth being furnished with rows of fine bristles ;
pale brown. Palpi tufted with long, loose, pale brown scales,
darker at the sides; head brown; collar erect, lower half
dark brown, in the middle a slender black bar, above it light
brown mixed with whitish ; shoulder lappets long and broad,
rather uplifted, pale brown edged with darker; central
portion of thorax pale brown mixed with darker, faintly
crested from top to back, the tips of the back crests dotted
with darker brown; fascicles whitish, long and very broad,
followed by long whitish scales on the basal abdominal
segments, where they enclose some dark scales which mimic
abdominal crests; remainder of abdomen light brown dusted
with darker; lateral tufts very small; anal tufts long and
rather narrow. Fore wings rather short and truncate;
costal and dorsal margins nearly straight; apex blunt and
squared; hind margin perpendicular and hardly curved
except toward the anal angle; colour pale brown dusted
with blackish; basal line indicated by two small black
streaks from the costa; first line perpendicular, black,
duplicated, waved; second line black, double, curving
outward from the costa round the reniform stigma, then
passing almost straight to the dorsal margin in a series of

204 LEPIDOPTERA.

crescents ; subterminal line very faintly paler, edged by a
series of cloudy blackish dots placed almost parallel with the
hind margin, that on the costa near the apex larger and more
conspicuous; orbicular stigma round, brown or blackish,
ringed with deep black; reniform stigma large and con-
spicuous, blackish, margined with deep black; claviform
stigma large, blunt, edged with deep black, pale centred,
and cutting the first transverse line; costal margin partly
edged with dark lines, hind margin dotted with black; cilia
pale brown. Hind wings pale grey-brown, sometimes
darker at the apex and along the hind margin; nervures
brown; central streak rather long and faintly brownish ;
cilia whitish divided by a brown line. Female stouter and
usually larger, with simple antenne and darker hind wings,
otherwise similar.

Underside of, the fore wings rather shining smoky-brown,
with the margins a little paler; reniform stigma marked by
a large smoky-black spot, which is followed by a slender
dark brown transverse stripe; nervures paler; hind wings
whitish-grey, with the costal region broadly clouded and
dusted with brown; central streak elongated, blackish,
followed by a slender grey transverse stripe; hind margin
and cilia tinged with brown. Body dark brown mottled
with whitish; legs brown, barred with white; leg tufts
brownish.

Variable in the ground colour from very pale brown to
ashy-brown, reddish-brown, and smoky black-brown; far
more so in the degree of dusting of black scales, which in
some specimens is almost totally absent, in others suffuses
the whole costal region or even more or less the entire
surface of the fore wings, sometimes forming large blackish
clouds, or entirely concealing the brown ground colour; but in
almost every instance one of the stigmata, or more particularly
the reniform stigma, is conspicuous. Usually the blackness
extends in an equal degree to the thorax, but there are
striking exceptions. In a specimen taken by myself on the

LRIFIDZE, 295

Norfolk coast, the fore wings are almost wholly black-brown,
while the thorax is almost entirely pale brown, except the
shoulders which are nearly white; in other such specimens
the thorax is dark with the shoulder lappets pale and
conspicuous. Mr. G. T. Porritt has a male specimen with
the fore wings smoky-black, except the hind margin where is
a pale grey stripe, and in which the thorax is black with
pale grey shoulders. The curious whiteness of the shoulder
lappets is sometimes observable in paler brown specimens,
and of these some have the three stigmata pale and only
faintly outlined with black, while others are nearly devoid of
the usual transverse lines. These forms seem to occur most
frequently near the sea; in Ireland there is sometimes a
tendency to more reddish-brown colour. Mr. W. H. B.
Fletcher has a series, from the north-east of Scotland, of
beautiful pale grey and brown-grey colour, with the markings
unusually distinct—the females darker and much mottled
with black. A specimen from the Isle of Wight in Mr.
F. J. Hanbury’s collection has one half the fore wings
nearly black, the other—the dorsal half—brown; another
very pretty specimen—of a second generation, taken in
September—is of a clear, pale, smooth grey-brown with
sharply dark stigmata. Mr. G. W. Wynn has a specimen,
taken in Warwickshire, of a pale ochreous-brown, with
a strong clouding of deep velvety black, neatly stippled
and placed in blotches, throughout the middle of the fore
wings.

On the wing in June and July and, very rarely, as a second
generation, in September.

Larva rather stout, cylindrical, rugose ; all the legs short
and placed well under the body; ground colour brownish-
erey finely freckled with a rather darker tint of the same ;
under surface and prolegs with a slightly greenish tinge and
unfreckled; dorsal vessel hardly paler than the ground
colour, enclosed between two lines of darker brown; sub-

206 LEPIDOPTERA.

dorsal line dark grey-brown with a fine thread of paler along
its lower edge, followed at a little distance by another such
pale and rather thicker line, though much interrupted or
broken up by the deep wrinkles of the skin; at some dis-
tance again below runs the subspiracular stripe of the same
pale greyish-brown, with a streak of the eround colour
through the midst of it; the head has the front margins of
the lobes broadly streaked with blackish, and a little at the
sides also; the mouth is large and sometimes blackish ; the
plate on the second segment is not so noticeable as usual in
this genus by any difference of colour, though it is a little
darker brown toward the margin in front; the dorsal and
subdorsal paler threads are faintly seen to pass through it,
As the larva approaches full growth the skin becomes
somewhat shining, and the raised spots, which immediately
efter the previous moult come out black, grow paler in the
centre and are of a dark brown all round it, each furnished
with a short fine bristle ; the spiracles are black and rather
small in size.

When first hatched it is of a greenish-grey, with blackish-
brown head and dorsal plate, the raised spots black and
furnished with hairs. After feeding a few days it becomes
of a greenish-ochreous tint, and in another week of a
greenish-olive, or rarely reddish-grey. From the time that
it is about half an inch in length to about an inch its colour
is ochreous, with a dark double dorsal line and two lines on
each side, the raised spots small and dark brown. After the
final moult it comes out at first very much darker than
before, with quite a noticeable appearance of sootiness over
it, all the lines being purplish-black and much suffused; the
skin also presents quite a rough surface, and although this is
afterward partly lost it yet remains a distinguishing feature
to the end.

August to November, when it retires for hybernation ;
feeding again in March and until the middle of May. On
low-growing plants generally. Chenopodium, Polygonum,

TRIFIDE. 297

clover, dock, mullein, and doubtless many others; feeding
at night and hiding by day under ground; but in dull
weather, if fresh food is placed on the surface of the eround
and shaded from the light, it has been found that it would
be eaten readily by day. When very young, and until about
half an inch in length, feeding exposed without burrowing
in the ground. (W. Buckler.) Later it passes the daylight
under ground like its congeners.

Pura of ordinary form, rather stout and very smooth ;
light orange-brown. In a slight earthen chamber under-
ground.

The moth conceals itself upon the ground among thick
plants and leaves during the day; flying vigorously at late
dusk and through the night. The male is strongly attracted
by light, and may often be seen circling in wild excitement
round a gas-lamp. Both sexes come readily to sugar, and
even with far more eagerness to the blossoms of the lime,
privet, valerian, and other flowering plants.

Never an abundant species, but fairly common in many of
the coast counties, as Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent, Sussex,
Hants, Dorset; less common in Gloucestershire, Somerset,
Devon, and Cornwall; also in South Wales, where it has
occurred at} Swansea and in Pembrokeshire. Inland it is
common in Surrey, and formerly might often be found on
the gas-lamps of the London suburban districts; less
frequent in Berks and Oxfordshire and in the Cambridge
fen district, where it is rather uncertain in its appearance.
Apparently absent from a large portion of the Midland
Counties, though found rarely in Warwickshire and North
Staffordshire. Also found in Herefordshire, Cheshire,
Lancashire, and some localities in Yorkshire, though not
generally. In Scotland in Ayrshire; in Moray and other
parts of the Eastern districts; also in Perthshire, where Sir
Thomas Moncrieff found that it attained on the hills an
altitude of 600 feet above the sea-level. Local and by no

298 LEPIDOPTERA.

means plentiful in Ireland, yet found in Wicklow, Kerry,
Louth, Down, Antrim, Derry, and Sligo.

Abroad its distribution is wide, over Central Europe,
great part of Northern, Western and Southern Europe, Asia
Minor, Siberia, the North-West Himalayas, Nilgiris, and
other mountain regions in India, and at Madagascar.

5. A. cinerea, Hiib.—Expanse 14 to 12 inch. Antenne
of the male pectinated; fore wings short, costa faintly
hollowed; whitish-grey with darker transverse lines, no
orbicular stigma; hind wings whitish; female smaller,
antennee threadlike; fore wings narrower, blackish-grey ;
hind wings dark grey.

Antenne of the male strongly pectinated with solid, densely
ciliated teeth which become shortened beyond the middle,
tapering off so that only a short piece of the apex of the
antenna is simple; deep dark brown. Palpi densely tufted,
the long scales from the second joint partly enclosing the
third, which resembles a small nipple, black-brown ; head pale
grey; collar rather erect, ashy-white except the lower
portion behind the head which is broadly black-brown ;
shoulder lappets very broad, loosely raised, ashy-white edged
and dusted with darker; rest of thorax rough, pale grey,
slightly crested at the back and there tipped with dark
brown. Fascicles dense, shining, pale grey, abdomen toward
the base greyish-white with a golden gloss, browner behind,
lateral and anal tufts small, golden brown. Fore wings short
and narrow, costa faintly concave, apex bluntly angulated,
hind margin rather oblique and curved off below the middle;
anal angle distinct; dorsal margin almost straight ; pale
ashy-grey with a faint purplish gloss; basal line indicated
by two curved black streaks from the costa; first line
originating in a large black costal spot, slender, black,
nearly perpendicular, much indented so as to form a series
of large scallops and angles ; the second line, originating from

TRIFIDA. 299

another black costal spot, makes a wide curve, but bends in
at the middle and thence proceeds straight to the dorsal
margin, forming throughout its course a series of crescents
with long points swelling into dots; subterminal line an
indistinct series of small brownish clouds sometimes edged
outwardly with whitish; orbicular and claviform stigmata
absent; reniform stigma rather small, grey, edged on both
sides with black; immediately before it is a very slender
dark brown, or grey, transverse shade ; costal margin partially
edged with black, and besides the black spots in which the
lines originate, having two sharp black points before the
apex, which, with the hind margin, is edged with minute
black lunules; cilia pale brown tipped with whitish. Hind
wings whitish with grey nervures and the costal and hind
margins more or less clouded with grey; central spot large,
triangular, erey; beyond it is a very faint slender grey
transverse stripe.

Female smaller, with narrower fore wings, smaller hind
wings, and stouter, more pointed body ; antennze simple, dark
brown; thorax dark grey-brown or blackish-brown with a
broad black bar across the front of the collar; fore wings
dark umbreous or blackish-brown abundantly dusted with
dark grey or smoky-black, hind-marginal space usually
paler; orbicular stigma visible as a cloudy blackish spot ;
first and second lines thickened, deeper black; central shade
broadened and darkened, obscuring the reniform stigma;
hind wings rather darker, sometimes very much so toward
the hind margin.

Underside of the male very pretty, whitish-grey with
whiter nervures; reniform stigma dark grey, followed by
two slender dark grey transverse stripes which are divided
by the white nervures. Hind wings whitish, costal region
and apex broadly dusted with grey-brown; central lunule
large, distinct, dark grey or black, followed by a dark grey
transverse stripe which is most distinct on the nervures.
Body brown; legs dark brown; leg tufts purplish-brown,

300 LEPIDOPTERA.

paler behind. - Female similar but darker, and with a black
central spot to the hind wings.

Rather variable in the ground colour, which in the male is
often tinged with brown or with slate colour, but in the
female varies from light umbreous to smoky-black, in the
latter case with all the markings obscured, or with the central
shade intensified into a black central transverse bar. In
the paler forms a suffusion of smoky-brown or smoky-erey is
not unusual, sometimes in the middle of the wing, oftener
toward the hind margin. Specimens in the cabinet of the
late Mr. F. Bond, obtained from the West of England, are
larger than ordinary, with paler colour and less distinct
markings—in these respects drawing nearer to the much
larger form found on the Continent of Europe.

On the wing at the end of May and early in June.

Larva when full grown an inch and a half long; stout ;
blackish-green, showing a double dorsal line enclosing the
finest thread of paler; subdorsal line also paler, slender,
edged above with darker green; below this a broader pale
stripe, and another along the spiracles, which are large and
black; raised spots dark brown, larger on the anterior
segments, always furnished with a slender hair ; head shining
black, mouth greenish ; dorsal plate jet black, finely divided ;
under surface paler green. In early youth the larva is green
—at first yellowish-green, after the first moult much brighter
in colour, but with the usual raised dots black. The mark-
ings, as mere pale longitudinal stripes, are very similar
throughout. After the third moult the ground colour is
pinkish-brown; after the fourth moult dingy grey-brown ;
after the fifth dark slate-grey, tinged with greenish beneath,
and it is only after a sixth moult that the adult colouring is
assumed.

End of June to April, on Thymus serpyllwm (wild thyme).
The full growth, with the six changes of skin, takes place by
the end of September, and the larva, after feeding a little in

LRALA DAE. 301

October, hybernates in the earth full grown. (Condensed
from Buckler.) I have no reason to believe that it feeds
again after hybernation in this country. Abroad it is said to
feed in the spring on low plants.

Pura short and stout, light brown, with very conspicuous
spiracles. In a small chamber in the earth among the roots
of plants.

The moth does not seem to be readily attracted by flowers,
but comes to sugar in its very restricted haunts ; its habit
appears, however, to be to sit on grasses at night, where it may
be found by searching with a lantern; when flying it will come
to light. It hides by day at the roots of the short grass of
the downs, but the female has occasionally been taken
tumbling or running over the grass, in hot sunshine, in the
afternoon. Apparently almost entirely restricted, in this
country, to chalk hills and downs, or limestone mountains. -
In Kent at Dover, New Romsey, Folkestone, Sevenoaks and
elsewhere ; in Sussex on the downs near Lewes, Brighton,
Worthing, and probably on all the chalk hills; in Dorset,
near Studland, Isle of Purbeck, but rare; more frequently
at the Isle of Portland; rare in Devon, recorded only from
Plymouth and Torquay; also at Durdham Downs near
Bristol; on the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire; at Newbury,
and once at Reading, Berkshire; at Whitchurch and
Chinnor, Oxfordshire; on the Gog Magog Hills near
Cambridge ; and at Brandon, Suffolk. Also in the west near
Leominster, Herefordshire; and at Llangollen in North
Wales. ‘This appears to be the extent of its range in these
Islands ; abroad it is widely distributed over Central, Western,
and great part of Northern Europe; Northern Italy,
Turkey, the Ural Mountain district, and Armenia.

6. A. puta, Hiib—Expanse 1} to 12 inch. Male,
fore wings pale drab with a blackish basal blotch and
reniform stigma, hind wings white. Female, fore wings

302 EE PTD OPIMERAs

blackish, a large drab blotch round the orbicular stigma ;
hind wings grey.

Antenne of the male pectinated with short, pointed,
abundantly ciliated teeth which become shorter beyond
the middle, and taper off, leaving the apical third threadlike.
Palpi tufted, final joint slender, short, pitted at the apex,
pale yellowish-brown, barred with dark brown; head
yellowish-brown ; collar similar, very prettily barred with
black crescents; above these very pale brown; thorax pale
brown or whity-brown, with the faintest possible back crest,
otherwise the scales are smoother and more prostrate than
in most of the allied species; fascicles whitish; abdomen
very pale brown with numerous long whitish scales; lateral
tufts hardly indicated; anal tuft tipped with yellowish.
Fore wings narrow, truncate, with straight costal and dorsal
margins; apex blunt, hind margin rather straight and
perpendicular, but elbowed below the middle and rounded
off a little at the anal angle: colour very pale brown or drab-
brown, with a large ill-defined blackish blotch occupying the
costal space from the base to the first line, and a smaller
similar blotch beyond the middle enclosing the reniform
stigma, costa also clouded with brown; basal line obscure,
limited to two black crescents edged with pale brown and
situated in the dark cloud; first line black, much indented,
perpendicular to near the dorsal margin, where is a large
loop, also duplicated by an inner grey line, the two enclosing
a pale slender stripe; second lme much less distinct, but
when visible, composed of a series of slender brownish
crescents with black dots at their ends; hind-marginal
region softly clouded with dark brown from the apex to
near the anal angle, and enclosing a series of pale wedges
which represent the subterminal line; orbicular stigma
flattened, prostrate, very narrow, with a dark outline, and
containing a dark brown streak or diamond-shaped spot;
reniform stigma edged with a black line, and containing

TRIFIDE. 3093

a kidney-shaped dark brown spot; claviform stigma small,
sharply pointed, edged, and sometimes filled, with black ;
hind margin dotted with black and with a blackish streak
on each nervure; cilia pale brown, dusted with darker.
Hind wings rather short, white, with brownish dashes on
the nervures and a very faint grey central spot; along the
apical and hind margins is a row of slender brownish
lunules ; cilia white.

Antenne of the female threadlike ; thorax ashy-grey with
the crescents in front of the collar black and conspicuous ;
fore wings black-brown with a purplish gloss; markings very
obscure and indistinct, but before the reniform stigma is a
blotch of pale drab enclosing the crushed orbicular stigma ;
and sometimes a fainter drab patch beyond it. Hind wings
more tinged with grey; abdomen rather short.

Underside of the fore wings of the male shining pale
brown; costa yellowish, dorsal region whitish; at the
reniform stigma is usually a darker brown cloud, and
beyond it a slender, faintly blackish, transverse stripe ;
apex and cilia tinged with reddish: hind wings whitish,
costal region dusted with grey; central spot very small,
blackish ; beyond it is a slender transverse line consisting
of dots and dashes on nervures; margins and cilia white,
dashed with brownish. Female more tinged with smoky-
black. - Body pale greyish-brown ; anal tuft more yellowish ;
leg-tufts grey-brown; legs dark brown or blackish, barred
with pale brown.

Not very variable, but a recurrent form of the male,
in which the whole of the basal portion of the fore wings,
to the first line, is more or less filled in with blackish, and
the transverse lines are more distinct, was formerly described
as a separate species under the name of radia ; a variety of
the female in which a brown transverse stripe lies along the
second line was described as its female. The late Mr.
Bentley when writing upon these varieties and showing that
they were of the same species as the typical form—then

304 LEPIDOPTERA.

known as A. radiola—also pointed out that the variation in
colour of the hind wings is very remarkable, and described a
form of the female in which they are silvery-white. A very
fine male of this variety radia is in the collection of
Major J. N. Still, and was taken in Devonshire. Colonel
Partridge has a female of which the fore wings are of the
colour of the male, but set off by two conspicuous straight
perpendicular, blackish, transverse bars; this was taken at
Portland.

On the wing in July and August; but occasionally, though
rarely, in May and June. On the Continent it is said to fly

in June.

Larva plump, cylindrical, but with the head and anal
segment small; in the region of each spiracle is a rather
semicircular inflation; segmental divisions deeply cut; legs
and prolegs small. Colour brownish-ochreous or dull
ochreous on the back, bounded on each side by the dark
brown edge of the subdorsal line; there is a delicate
mottling of rather darker brown, of a pear shape, on the
back of each segment, its broad end in front, through which
runs the dorsal line, brown or pale brown, thin at the
beginning, but expanding almost into an elongated diamond
form at the end of each segment, and distinctly edged with
darker brown, particularly at its widest part. The subdorsal
line is dark brown, having close beneath it a mere thread of
very pale greenish-grey, and from this to the spiracles the
sides are greyish-brown; another pale thread, much inter-
rupted, running a little above the spiracles; below them is a
very faint trace of a double dirty-whitish line ; all the rest of
the lower and under surface being of a pale greenish-grey
tint, and semitranslucent.

The head brown, the lobes and mouth marked with darker
brown and very shining; on the second segment is a dark
brown plate having three pale longitudinal lines. Spiracles
black; usual raised dots very dark brown, each furnished

TRIFID A. 305

with a minute short hair. When younger the dorsal region
is of a darker brown ; but when quite full fed, the markings
become less distinct, and the larva nearly unicolorous.
(W. Buckler.)

September until—probably—May, certainly till March,
but many appear to be full fed in December and January.
On lettuce, dandelion, knot-grass, and probably on many
other low-growing plants, more particularly those growing
in damp meadows.

Pura undescribed. Dr R. C. R. Jordan once dug up a
pupa in Devonshire, in April, from which he reared the
moth on May Ist. From this circumstance he deduced
double-broodedness in the species. In view of the great
rarity of such early appearances, it appears more probable
that they are produced by more advanced larve, which have
fed up, as noticed by Mr. Buckler, early in the winter.

The moth hides, like its congeners, on the ground among
thick herbage or dead leaves, and among rubbish, in the
daytime. At night it is very active, strongly attracted by
light, and often to be seen flying wildly round a gas-lamp.
It has even been known to fly to a light through the open
window, in the room in which I am writing. The female also
comes to light occasionally. Sugar is attractive to it, also
honey-dew and blossoms of the lime-tree.

Formerly abundant in some seasons in the suburbs of
London, and not yet utterly driven out by the smoke.
More especially common in rather low, damp districts,
meadows, and slightly marshy places, all over the South
of England from Kent to Cornwall, including the Scilly
Isles; and to Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, and
the Cambridge Fen district; less common in Norfolk and
Suffolk ; found also in Herefordshire; and recorded, though
very rarely, in Cheshire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland; but
apparently absent from the Midland district, and, so far as I
can ascertain, very local in Wales, where it has been found

VOL. II. U

306 LEPIDOPTERA.

commonly in Carmarthenshire. In Scotland it is said to
have been noticed at Dumfries. In Ireland a single specimen
has been taken by Colonel Partridge at Enniskillen.

Abroad it is found in France, Belgium, Southern Germany,
and other parts of Central Kurope; at Gibraltar (where it
has been taken at ivy bloom in October); in Northern
Africa; Egypt, commonly; Syria and Bithynia.

7. A. exclamationis, 7.—Expanse 1} to 12 inch.—Collar
broadly barred with black; fore wings narrow, obtuse,
pale brown, with the three stigmata black, the claviform
long and conspicuous; hind wings whitish. Colour in
the female often more reddish-brown, with the hind wings
grey-brown.

Antenne of the male pectinated with extremely short
teeth, which are surmounted by small tufts of fine bristles ;
dark brown; palpi tufted, brown, apical joint very small ;
head and collar pale brown, the latter with a central trans-
verse conspicuous bar of deep black; thorax brown, or
reddish-brown, very slightly crested at the top and back;
fascicles long, white, followed by an abundance of long
whitish hair-scales on the basal segments of the abdomen,
which is otherwise pale brown; lateral and anal tufts small.
Fore wings rather narrow; costal and dorsal margins very
faintly rounded; apex bluntly angulated; hind margin
almost truncate, but elbowed below the middle, notwith-
standing which the anal angle is rather full; smooth pale
brown, either of an umbreous or reddish shade, nervures
usually a very little darker; basal line either absent or
indicated in blackish near the costa; first line usually
obscure or absent, when visible nearly perpendicular, black,
repeatediy indented; second line also usually obscure or
absent, when present rather fully curved and forming a
series of crescents with darker points, which partially enclose
a series of pale cloudy dots; this line is rather variable in

TRIFIDE. 307

position ; hind margin usually clouded with smoky-brown, in
which is an irregular paler subterminal line or series of faint
pale cloudy spots; orbicular stigma rather small, either
round, ovate, or elongated, edged, and often filled up with
black-brown ; reniform stigma large, broad, and conspicuous,
black, or else edged and nearly filled with black ; claviform
stigma long, deep black, shaped like a canine tooth or the
upper portion of a thick note of exclamation! These three
stigmata are usually the only conspicuous markings on the
smooth brown surface of the wing. Cilia glossy pale brown,
clouded with dark brown. Hind wings white, nervures and
sometimes the hind marginal line brownish; cilia white.
Antenne of the female simple; fore wings longer and
more truncate, and often of a deeper or redder brown;
markings generally more obscure ; hind wings usually tinged
with grey-brown, sometimes very darkly so, except that the
base, or at any rate a dash or two from the base, is usually
whitish ; body rather stouter; in other respects as in the
male.

Underside of fore wings in the male pale grey, with a
golden gloss especially at the margins; a faintly blackish
cloud at the reniform stigma, and beyond it a rather curved
smoky-grey transverse stripe; cilia glossy pale brown.
Hind wings white, dusted along the costa to the apex with
ereyish-brown ; and with a narrow, curved, cloudy transverse
stripe chiefly visible upon the nervures ; cilia white, brownish
at the apex of the wing. Body light brown; leg tufts
darker brown, dull; legs brown, with blackish dashes.
Female with the fore wings uniform deep brown; hind wings
extensively blotched or shaded with brown or grey-brown.

Variable in almost every respect—in the ground colour
from pale drab or pale brownish-grey to deep dark red brown
or even smoky-black. I have a specimen taken in Cheshire
which is almost black, and Mr. G. T. Porritt has a Yorkshire
example of an extremely dark purple brown. In the grey-
brown forms there is, not unfrequently, a mottling of whitish

308 LEPIDOPTERA.

clouds in the middle area of the fore wings and a yellowish
spot between the two upper stigmata. In all the varieties
of ground colouring the transverse lines are usually indis-
tinct, often obsolete; but occasionally very sharply distinct,
and when so, they seem to present a most curious appearance
of the profile of a sordid and brutalised human face, whereof
the claviform stigma is the mouth, the reniform the eye,
and the orbicular the nostril. The resemblance of course
is fanciful, but it is conspicuous; in a female specimen in
Mr. F. J. Hanbury’s collection, most glaringly so. A far
prettier variety is produced when the second line is placed
somewhat far back and the hind marginal space behind it is
clouded with black. The three stigmata, which ordinarily
are the only conspicuous markings, are in some instances, in
females more particularly, rendered quite obscure, or even
almost obliterated ; or some are so obscured, leaving only the
reniform, or the claviform, distinct.

A curious and rather pretty recurrent variety, known as
var. plaga, Steph., is produced by the union of the black
stigmata by means of a black bar or streak, or a black cloud,
but this even varies greatly ; sometimes a black line connects
the reniform with the orbicular, though usually it is carried
along the lower edge of the latter to the claviform, in others
it passes below the orbicular, uniting the other two; more
rarely the orbicular and reniform are fused together, or united
higher up, and the claviform left conspicuously separate ; of
this form a very handsome example is in the collection of the
late Mr. Henry Doubleday at Bethnal Green Museum. The
black bar which unites the stigmata in these specimens takes
other forms; sometimes it is a small black streak just above
the top of the claviform, in others it unites with that
stigma only, and broadens or extends it in various ways ;
or other streaks appear above it, uniting the two upper
stigmata as already described, or altering their shape and
forming rayed or graded black blotches. In Miss Kimber’s
collection is a male specimen of the variety having the

TRIFID. 309

transverse lines strongly marked, in which also are three
black longitudinal stripes running along nervures, one from
the claviform stigma and two from the reniform, all of them
very conspicuous and attaining the second transverse line ;
another in the same collection has two large parallel black
elongated blotches in the fore wings, totally concealing the
stigmata. Mr. Eustace Bankes has a wonderful specimen,
taken at South Norwood, London, of a uniform brownish-
white, without trace of either transverse lines or stigmata,
and with scarcely a trace even of the black bar across the
front of the collar. Its resemblance to a Leucania is so great
that it was originally supposed to belong to that genus, and
was only recognised by the form of its thorax and fore wings.
A specimen in the cabinet of the late Mr. F. Bond has its
right fore wing extended laterally to double the normal
width, the markings thereby rendered smeared and indis-
tinct. Mr. S. Stevens has a very large and broad-winged
female specimen which has an elongated blunt blackish
blotch on each side of the median nervure, and the subter-
minal line shifted out of its usual position. Mr. C. W. Watts
possesses a specimen taken by himself in the north of
Ireland, in which the basal portion and the whole space
beyond the second line are dark brown, while the central
area 1s of the usual pale brown.

Variation in the hind wings is very slight, but an occa-
sional male has a grey-brown band along the hind margin.

On the wing in June and July. There is a record of a
casual emergence in October.

Larva moderately stout; ground colour a rather warm
brown varying in intensity a little in individuals; very
constant in colour and design. Down the middle of the back
on each segment .is a pear-shaped blotch of darker brown,
composed of freckles, the broad end of the pear in front ;
through these the dorsal line can'scarcely be traced beyond
the fourth segment, though it begins on the second, by

310 LEPIDOPTERA

dividing the -shining dark plate, as a distinctly paler line
outlined with dark brown; on the third and fourth segments
it soon becomes suffused with the ground colour, and its
course thence is but faintly indicated by the dark outlines,
which can best be discerned at the end of a segment. The
subdorsal line is of darkish brown above and rather festooned
in its course, thinly edged beneath with a faint paler line,
which is followed by a broader line of darkish freckles and
then by a paler line of the ground colour, and this in turn by
a stripe of darker freckles, on the lower edge of which the
spiracles are situated; beneath these, after a line of ground
colour, is a paler or dirty-whitish line followed by the drab-
coloured ground of the under surface.

Head brownish-drab, darkest about the mouth, with a
blackish-brown streak down the front of each lobe; the
shining dorsal plate is margined with dark brown, through
which runs the pale dorsal line. The raised dots of the back
are dark brown, the hinder pairs a little the larger; those
on the sides are rather paler brown, and those below the
spiracles still paler, each bearing a short bristly hair. The
spiracles are quite black and furnish an important character,
by which at a glance the larva can be separated from that of
A. segetum, being usually larger than the raised spots before
and behind them—never smaller. The warm brown of the
back, without a tinge of grey or green, will also help to
determine this larva; this is noticeable from the time when
it is half an inch in length. The infant larva is tinged with
grey and later with greenish. July to May, on plantain,
lettuce, chickweed, Chenopodium and low-growing plants
generally, also apparently, with that of A. segetwm, which it
closely resembles, in turnips and other autumn and winter
crops, though perhaps more addicted to grass land than is
the latter species. The greater portion of its growth is
accomplished before the winter sets in.

In addition to its exploits in the destruction of crops, this
larva has had the distinguished honour of causing no little

TRIFIDA. 311

damage and risk in an important branch of manufacture—
that of linen. <A necessary process in this manufacture—
that of bleaching—is carried on in the north of Ireland by
spreading the linen, in the daytime, on the grassy hill-sides
in the open air ; and in addition to the material manufactured
in that country large quantities are sent over from Lanca-
shire to be bleached in this purer, cleaner atmosphere. So
important is this process that it is carried on as a business
separate from the actual manufacture of linen, extensive
premises being set apart, and much capital invested in it.
From time to time, for many years—usually in isolated years,
however—complaints have been made of damage caused to
the linen, when bleaching, by caterpillars, which were
asserted to eat holes in it to such an extent as to render
considerable lengths nearly worthless. In the year 1888 the
Rey. W. F. Johnson, then living at Armagh, wrote to me that
the mischief had re-commenced, and at my request sent over
a number of larvee which had been actually picked off the
damaged fabric. The majority of these larvae proved to
belong to the present species. Arrangements were soon
made, by one of the firms affected, to carry on certain
suggested experiments, and it was soon ascertained, definitely,
that the damage did not take place while the linen was lying
upon the grass, but that many larvee availed themselves of
the covering, crawling upon the underside of it, so that they
were taken up with it when the linen was brought indoors in
the afternoon. It also appeared that if the fabric was at
once placed in what is denominated the “dip,” a weak
solution of chloride of lime, no mischief was done; but that
any pieces of linen which remained heaped together as
brought in, through the night, were seriously damaged.
Larvee were then wrapped up, purposely, in small pieces of
linen and placed under some small degree of pressure, with
the result that many of them gnawed their way through, and
made holes precisely as in the damaged pieces.

So far as could be ascertained, all these belonged to the

312 LEPIDOPTERA.

present species ; the larvee of Zriphwna orbona, and 7’. pronuba
found with them did not appear to gnaw the linen. The
mischief was accordingly quite prevented by the very simple
means of placing all the linen brought in from the grass at
once in the dip, or shaking it so thoroughly that all the larvee
were dislodged. I have heard no further complaints of
the damage of linen from the cause in question. It may be
well to point out that it was only caused by the anxiety of
the hungry larve, when night came on, to escape from con-
finement, and reach their natural food—not by any morbid
taste for the fabric.

A curious point in the natural history of the larva was
incidentally discovered in the course of these experiments—
that submersion for the whole night, or for double that time,
in the weak solution of chloride of lime had no injurious
effect upon them; although they had not done any mischief,
they were all alive.

Pura of quite ordinary form, reddish-brown ; in the earth
in a small ovate chamber.

Probably the most abundant of all our Noctww in fields
and woods, and even suburban gardens. It comes in crowds
to sugar, sometimes covering the sweet attraction to the
exclusion of better species ; it is also abundant at flowers,
and especially fond of those of the red valerian (Centranthus
ruber). »Honey-dew, lime blossoms, the flowing sap of
wounded trees, the sweet aphis-secretions on nettles, all
available sweets, are greedily absorbed. The male is also
keenly sensitive to the influence of light, and in dark nights
in June may be seen wildly whirling round every gas-lamp,
or sitting upon, or in it, or buzzing about the ceiling of a
room into which it has made its way through an open
window.

Probably everywhere in England, Wales, and Ireland, one
might almost say in every field, and in Scotland throughout
the mainland to Moray in the east and Argyle in the west,

s

TRIFIDE. 313

yet apparently not observed as yet in the Hebrides, Orkney,
or Shetland Isles. Curiously enough, it appears to be not
very common in the Scilly Isles in the extreme south-west.
Abroad it is found throughout the Continent of Europe, and
Northern and Western Asia.

8. A. lunigera, Steph.—LExpanse 14 to 1% inch.
Antenne ciliated; fore wings blunt, narrow; costa straight ;
male pale brownish-grey; orbicular stigma a black ring;
claviform thick and black; female blackish-slate, with distinct
white orbicular stigma.

Antenne of the male slenderly pectinated with short
pointed teeth, each of which is rendered more noticeable by
being surmounted by an erect tuft of minute bristles ;
these become shorter beyond the middle, leaving the apical
portion of the antenne simple; dark grey. Palpi densely
tufted, dark grey in front, yellowish beneath; head grey;
collar very broad, grey-brown, dotted with whitish scales,
and barred with black; shoulder lappets pale grey, dusted
and edged with black; remainder of thorax pale grey,
slightly raised into a crest from top to back, the hinder
tufts tipped with black ; fascicles long, pale grey ; abdomen
yellowish- brown, much covered with whitish hairs from the
base ; lateral and anal tufts very small. Fore wings narrow,
of nearly equal breadth at the base, and almost oblong ;
costal and dorsal margins very straight, apex blunt; hind
margin very slightly oblique, but rather more so toward the
anal angle; pale hoary-grey, with a purplish flush, much
clouded with blackish along the costa ; basal line incomplete,
angulated, double, but formed of hardly more than four
cloudy black spots or short streaks; first line indistinct,
double, blackish, rather perpendicular, but much indented,
and almost looped close to the dorsal margin; second line
placed far beyond the middle, gracefully curved, and consist-
ing of a series of cloudy-grey crescents, followed by a row of
black dots ; space between this and the hind margin clouded

314 LEPIDOPTERA.

with blackish-grey, in which a subterminal irregular line of
pale dots is perceptible; orbicular stigma round, whitish,
ringed, and often centred, with black; reniform stigma
indistinct, dark grey, edged with black, and much obscured
by a broad blackish transverse perpendicular shade through
the middle of the wing; claviform stigma black, large, and
conspicuous ; extreme hind margin dotted with black ; cilia
light brown, shaded and lined with dark grey. Hind wings
white, with the nervures and hind marginal line faintly pale
brown; cilia white.

In the female the ground colour of the fore wings, with
that of the thorax, is more uniform, of a deep shining dark
grey or blackish-grey; orbicular stigma white, ringed with
black, very conspicuous; reniform stigma grey, edged with
black ; claviform small, black ; remaining markings obscured
by the dark ground colour. Hind wings pure clear white,
or else tinged with brownish along the hind margin, and
having brownish nervures; body rather stouter, antennz
simple.

Underside of the fore wings of the male dark grey, except
the dorsal region, which is broadly glossy white; under
surface of the discal cell covered with long fluffy grey scales ;
costal and hind margins rather pale. Hind wings whitish,
with the costal area dusted with dark grey; beyond the
middle a slender dark grey transverse stripe is visible,
mainly upon the nervures; on the hind margin are three
or four blackish dots. Body yellowish-white, barred with
dark grey; leg tufts mixed grey and whitish, legs very
bristly, grey, banded with white. Female similar.

Variation in this species is not great; in the male it
consists in greater or less clouding of smoky-grey on the
fore wings; in the female mainly in the distinctness of the
stigmata, or their suffusion with black colouring—which
occasionally even obliterates the white orbicular, leaving the
fore wings wholly smoky-black. In this sex the hind wings
are rather uncertain, being in some examples pure white.

TRIFIDZ. 315

A curious aberration, in the cabinet of Mr. S. J. Capper, and
taken in the Isle of Wight, is of the pale brown of
A. exclamationis, with all its markings sharply defined.
Another far more curious, reared by Lieut. E. W. Browne
at Portland, is distinctly gynandrous, its right side being
male, left female, having the quite distinct colours of the
two sexes, the simple antenna on the female side much
larger than the ciliated or pectinated antenna of the other,
while the white hind wing of the male half is much larger
and longer than the clouded corresponding member of the
female side. The apex of the abdomen in this specimen is
very curious; on the right side is one of the usual harpes,
or claspers, conspicuously covered with yellow scales, which
are far more noticeable than in an ordinary male, while the
left side shows a half cylinder in which distinctly reposes the
brown ovipositor.
This species is on the wing in July and August.

LarvA brown on the back, with the central portion of each
segment marked with dark brown, in the form of a diamond
with the points cut off; dorsal line conspicuously sulphur-
yellow on the dorsal plate only, while on all the other
segments scarcely noticeable, and chiefly at the commence-
ment of each as rather paler brown than the mottled portions
it runs through. Subdorsal line dark brownish-green, edged
above with wedge-shaped, buff-coloured spaces; below it
the sides are blackish-green, with, immediately under the
subdorsal line, a fine thread of dirty whitish-green, while
another such fine line, but undulating and interrupted, runs
between it and the spiracles, and a third above the legs.
Spiracles black; raised spots blackish, large, and shining ;
head mottled, brownish, with a large black spot on each side
of the crown; dorsal plate shining black; anal plate buff,
horny and conspicuous; under surface and legs greenish-
drab. This pattern, which is bright and sharply defined, fades
as the larva becomes quite full-grown, the back being then

316 LEPIDOPLERA.

of a uniform dirty brown, with the sides greyish; the raised
spots changed to brown rings containing buff dots, the hair
or bristle from each only visible through a powerful lens;
the general condition becomes less plump, and after a time
the larva also becomes shorter. When young it is pale
ochreous or pinkish on the back, the sides greyish-green,
under surface paler; on the back of each segment a V-like
mark, brown, prostrate, with the apex in front, through
which passes the pale buff dorsal line, most conspicuous
through the dorsal plate. As it arrives at two-thirds of its
full growth the V marks disappear, and the adult colouring
as described is assumed. (W. Buckler.)

August to May, reaching full growth by the end of
autumn, shrinking somewhat in size, but continuing to feed,
in mild weather, through the winter and spring, on low-
growing plants on rocks at the seaside, but in confinement
feeding on knot-grass, dandelion, plantain, chickweed, and
slices of carrot. Lieut. Browne’s account of this little-
known larva is too interesting to be overlooked. “On July
22, 1890, I took some A. lunigera at Portland, and placed
five of the females in a bandbox, with some honey on a
small piece of sponge, to try to get ova. I looked at them
every day, but could not see any eggs, and at the end of
ten days, three of the moths having died, I let the survivors
go, and thought that the experiment was a failure, until,
being about to throw away the sponge used for the honey,
I noticed some ova thereon, and, on examining it carefully,
was surprised to find that the cells of the sponge were full
of eggs, which had evidently been deposited by the moths
as far inside as they could reach, and as much concealed as
possible. ‘There were no eggs on the outside of the sponge.
The larvee commenced to hatch out on August 3, and
were fed on dandelion leaves. On this food beginning to
fail at the end of September, I gave them slices of carrot,
which they took to all right, and continued on this diet until
the dandelion was again available in the spring. They

TRIFIDEZ. 317

continued to feed from August, right through the winter,
up to the end of April; that is to say, some of them did,
for the shces of carrot were always eaten, more or less,
even during severe weather. ‘They were kept in two large
flower-pots, under an open window facing the north, and
led an entirely subterranean life, the four inches of earth
in the pots being honeycombed by their burrows. I often
looked at the pots after dark, but never saw any larve on
the surface, except once when their food was short, and a
few were wandering about looking for more, when, on seeing
my light, they immediately retreated into their holes back-
wards. The food, too, was invariably eaten from below,
never on the top or edge, the slices of carrot being scooped
out on the underside. On several occasions I noticed a
dandelion leaf sticking straight up in the pot, having
apparently been grasped in the centre and partly dragged
into the hole occupied by the larva, just as if it had been
bent and forcibly stuck into the ground. I stopped giving
them food on April 30, and in looking at the pots on
May 25, there were eight larvee on the surface apparently
dried up, but on May 31 these eight had turned to pupa.”

Pupa, when but just changed, cream-coloured all over,
eradually changing to deep red, the red colour commencing
at either end and extending inwards, a white band round the
centre remaining visible for some days, so that the last trace
of white does not disappear for ten days. In a brittle
cocoon of silk and earth underground. (Lieut. Browne.)

This moth appears never to be captured in the daytime,
doubtless it hides among thick herbage in rifts of the rocks.
At night it flies freely in its very restricted haunts, and
comes readily to sugar if any one is reckless enough to tempt
it with that dainty. It also frequents blossoms of ragwort,
wood-sage, and other plants; and is strongly attracted by
light, and a constant visitor at lighthouses. Its sole haunts
appear to be high sea-cliffs and precipitous rocks. In such

318 LEPIDOPTERA.

places in the Isle of Wight it has been taken by Mr. A. J.
Hodges in abundance, but apparently only by venturing at
night into such situations as are hardly to be called safe or
easy in the daytime. Also rather common at Portland, and
found in less numbers at other places on the Dorset coast.
In Devon at Torquay, Seaton, and Bolthead not uncommonly,
on the rocky portions of the Cornish coast, and even abun-
dantly in the Scilly Isles. In South Wales near Swansea,
near Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, at Caldy Island near
Tenby, and elsewhere on the limestone sea-cliffs of Pem-
brokeshire; and in North Wales at Aberdowy, near
Barmouth. In all probability it only needs to be looked for
in other rocky portions of the coast of the South of England
and Wales. In Ireland it is found at the Hill of Howth,
near Dublin, at Castle Bellingham, and on the coasts of
Cork and Kerry. In Scotland, in the Edinburgh district
and on the coast of Moray. So far as is known, these are
its limits in these islands, and, indeed, in the whole world,
unless a report of its occurrence in the North of France be
correct. How it can fail to occur there in plenty is almost
beyond comprehension, its best English localities being so
directly opposite. An opinion has been hazarded that it is
merely a local form of A. trux, a species common in mountain
districts of France, Italy, and Spain; but upon what grounds
such a suggestion has been made, it is difficult to judge.
Putting the far greater size of A. trux out of the question
as unimportant, the two forms hardly appear to have any
characters in common in either sex. Herrich-Schiiffer, when
suggesting the possible identity, actually pointed out the
excellent specific distinctions.

[A. spinifera, //iib.—The capture by himself of a speci-
men, flying in the sunshine one afternoon in August 1869,
in the Isle of Man, was announced by Mr. C. 8. Gregson in
the Hntomologist, 1872. This specimen, which is now in the
collection of Mr. Sydney Webb at Dover, is of a clear pale

TRIFIDE. 319

purplish-brown, with the reniform stigma normal, the orbicular
long and narrow, outlined with black and joined to the reni-
form; and the claviform very long and sword-shaped, the
sword having a hilt. Hind wings and abdomen very white.
So far as I can ascertain, the capture of no second specimen has
been established, and this can only be looked upon as an
accidental introduction. It is decidedly a South Huropean
Species, occurring in Southern France, Spain, and Sicily.
At Gibraltar Mr. J. J. Walker says of it, “‘ Found occasionally
on the Rock at ivy-bloom in October; also met with in
February. It is, however, more plentiful among coarse grass
and herbage on the eastern beach (of the Mediterranean)
three miles north of Gibraltar, in October. Some very richly
marked specimens were seen on the Tangier sandhills in
September 1888.” To its limited European range may
therefore be added some portion of Northern Africa and
probably a large extent of Asia, since it is well known to be
plentiful in India. That it is a resident in any part of the
British Isles is altogether improbable. |

9. A. rips, Hiib—lLExpanse 14 inch. Fore wings
narrow and rather pointed, pale yellowish-brown or whitish-
brown; stigmata darker; lines indistinct, often obscure ;
usually a row of short brown wedges before the hind margin ;
hind wings clear white, slightly tinged with greyish in the
female.

Antenne of the male deeply notched with short pointed
teeth, from which arise closely placed tufts of fine bristles,
serving as apparent pectinations; these become shorter
beyond the middle and disappear, leaving the apical fourth
part of the antenna threadlike; pale brown. Palpi short,
loosely tufted, whitey-brown; head rather densely tufted,
whitish-brown ; collar similar, doubly barred and edged with
brighter brown ; shoulder lappets slightly raised, very pale
brown, streaked or dotted with brown or black at the tips;
remainder of thorax pale brown, furnished with a very faint

320 TEPID OR TIARA

crest at thé back; fascicles short, closely curved, snow-
white; abdomen pale yellowish-brown ; basal portion whiter ;
lateral tufts small; anal tuft long, yellowish. Fore wings
very narrow at the base; costa straight ; apex rather sharply
angulated ; hind margin gently rounded, more so below the
middle; dorsal margin straight ; colour very pale wainscot-
brown or yellow-brown, or even whitish-brown; subcostal
region often paler, or dusted with grey or white; basal line
scarcely visible, indicated by fragments of curved brown
lines near the costa; first line double, dark brown or black,
formed into three rough crescents, and placed rather obliquely
outward to the dorsal margin; second line a curved series of
small black crescents with long points, the enclosed spaces
often showing as whitish spots; beyond is a transverse band
of roughly wedge-shaped black-brown streaks edging the
subterminal line, which is very indistinct, pale brown;
hind marginal space beyond it clouded with smoky-brown ;
orbicular stigma small, round, brown, broadly ringed with
blackish ; reniform stigma edged and nearly filled up with
blackish-brown ; claviform stigma small, black, or edged
with black ; extreme hind margin edged with slender blackish
crescents; cilia light brown. Hind wings rather small,
rounded, pure white, or with the faintest possible tinge of
brownish on the nervures and hind margin; cilia pure
white. Female similar, with simple antennz, stouter body,
and the nervures of the hind wings more distinctly pale
brown, also in some instances a clouding of pale grey-brown
on the hinder half; cilia white.

Underside of fore wing shining white, faintly tinged with
yellowish or greyish along the costa, with a faintly grey
central spot, and beyond it a slender grey transverse stripe ;
hind wings white, dusted with brown along the costal margin ;
body yellowish-white ; legs pale brown ; leg tufts pure white.

This species is subject in a remarkable degree: to local
variation. On our south-western coasts it is often well, or
even strongly marked, showing all the markings distinctly ;

TRIFIDE. 321

on the coast of Hants and the Isle of Wight, and generally
in the south and south-east the tendency is often to shades of
reddish on a white ground, or to a very opaque whiteness,
the markings in both cases being often obscured; on the
coast of the Eastern Counties the ground colour is usually
whitish, though not of so opaque a quality, or perhaps more
of a whitish-drab, and the markings are rarely very strong,
usually faint or partially obsolete; on the north-western
coasts more tinged with grey. These forms melt into each
other, so that the ground colour varies from pure white
through pale reddish, rich reddish, reddish-drab, yellowish-
drab, and various shades of pale brown to brownish-grey, and
the markings to all degrees of distinctness or obliteration—
especially the latter. In the collection of the late Mr. Henry
Doubleday at the Bethnal Green Museum is a very handsome
series of well coloured and well marked specimens, unfortu-
nately without locality-labels, but which there is reason to
think were obtained near Torquay. In Mr. F. J. Hanbury’s
collection is a specimen the fore wings of which are of a rich
bright light red with the markings and nervures slenderly
edged or lined with white; another with thorax and wings
clear smooth white, except faint indications of the three
stigmata, and part of the first and second lines; and a third
example of whitish ground colour, but with all the markings
clearly shown, and all the interspaces delicately dashed and
clouded with grey, reddish, and brown. In the collection of
Mr. 8. J. Capper is a specimen of a creamy-yellow, with the
three stigmata distinctly marked but the transverse lines
totally absent. Dr. Mason has a specimen of a greyish-white
with a reddish flush, and the stigmata faintly indicated in
reddish-brown. It is scarcely possible, in words, to indicate
the delicate loveliness of some of these forms.
On the wing in June and July.

Larva elongate, rather flattened, shining, with plates on
the second and anal segments; head rounded and polished.
VOL. III. x

322 LEPIDOPTERA.

Dull ochreous; dorsal line dark grey enclosing a pale thread ;
subdorsal line broad, grey, shading off downwards; parallel
and close below it is a faint grey line; dorsal dots grey,
prominent, shining; lateral spots shining, but less distinct ;
spiracles very large, black and conspicuous; head pale
brown; plates dull yellowish; under surface paler; legs and
prolegs tipped with dark brown. When young the colour of
this larva is pale greenish. (C. Fenn.)

Mr. Buckler figures the full grown larva greenish, as well
as dull ochreous, but in my own experience the latter colour
is predominant. Very possibly the food plant may have some
influence, since the Rev. J. Hellins, who fed them on the
same food plant, had them in both colours, and one larva
green for one half its length, grey the other half! July or
August, to May and even June, but feeding up in the
autumn, on Salsola kali, Cakile maritima, Sueda maritima,
Lryngium maritimum, Convolvulus soldanella, various species
of Atriplex and Chenopodium, and probably on almost any plant
which grows freely in sand within the immediate influence
of the sea; in confinement on lettuce and slices of carrot.
Also fed by Messrs. Buckler and Hellins upon Hound’s-tongue
(Cynoglossum officinale), but this plant does not usually grow
in such spots as this larva loves, and it is probably only a
substitute food. The larva feeds at night with avidity,
crawling freely over the plants, but hides by day in the sand
at a depth of one or two inches, usually under its food
plants, and chooses more particularly the loose sand near
high water-mark rather than that which is bound closely
together by the roots of Ammophila and other plants.
When full-fed at the end of autumn it burrows more deeply
into the sand for hybernation, but in the spring comes again
more nearly to the surface or else assumes the pupa state in
the small chamber in which it passed the winter. In con-
finement it must be supplied with a considerable depth of
sand, which must not become too dry, and pieces of carrot
should be left on the surface in order that any larva which

TRIFIDZA. 323

has not fully satisfied its hunger may, on coming up, find
food. If not fully provided it may very probably supply the
deficiency by devouring a companion or two.

Pura of ordinary form, thin skinned, very pale brown;
in achamber in sand, often at some depth.

The moth is extremely sluggish in the daytime, hiding
itself close on the surface of the sand—which in appearance
it strongly resembles—at the roots of its food plants, or of
grasses, under ledges, under pieces of timber stranded by
the sea, or in any close shelter. At night it flies vigorously,
and may be attracted by sugar and by light. Wholly
confined to sea-sands, but widely distributed on the English
coast—Deal; Isle of Wight; Portland and Studland in
Dorset; Torquay and elsewhere on the coast of Devon;
Weston-super-Mare, Somerset; Hunstanton and Yarmouth,
Norfolk; coasts of Essex and Suffolk; Spurn, Lincolnshire,
and elsewhere on the sandy coasts of that county and
Yorkshire. Formerly at Runcorn, Cheshire, whence it in
all probability was not exterminated by the Manchester Ship
Canal; on the Lancashire coast and that of the Isle of Man;
and recorded, though at long intervals—1859 and 1888—in
the west of Cumberland. In Wales it appears to be fairly
common on the south coast, having been found near Swansea ;
at Pembrey, Carmarthenshire; and at Tenby. The only
record in Scotland of which I am aware is by Mr. P.
Cameron at Troon, Ayrshire. The late Mr. E. Birchall
recorded it at Malahide on the Dublin coast, and although
the record has not been confirmed I have little doubt of its
accuracy.

Abroad its distributicn is not wide, as it appears to be
confined to the coasts of Sweden, Denmark, Northern France,
and Northern Germany. ‘The white varieties already de-
scribed are also found in Pomerania and Denmark. The
insect known under the name of wstructa, Walk. appears to
me to be nothing more than the female of this species.

324 LEPIDOPTERA.

10. A. cursoria, Hii)—Expanse 12 to 1} inch. Fore
wings long, narrow, rather pointed, with straight costa;
yellowish-brown, clouded or marbled with darker brown,
no wedges along hind margin, stigmata edged with whitish ;
hind wings white, bordered with grey.

Antenne of the male pectinated to the middle with short
pointed teeth tipped with fine bristles, tapering off beyond
the middle, and leaving the apical portion threadlike ; colour
pale brown. Palpi and head strongly tufted, light brown;
collar pale brown or whitish-brown, with two large dark
brown or even blackish-brown crescents just within the
upper margin. Thorax pale brown, barred and_ blotched
with whitish, or with the collar and raised shoulder-lappets
edged with white; faintly crested at the back, the tufts
mottled with white and often edged behind with dark
brown; fascicles dense, white; abdomen yellowish-brown,
basal portion with abundant long whitish hair-scales; lateral
tufts prominent; anal tuft rather compressed and bluntly
pointed, light brown. Fore wings rather long and narrow ;
costal and dorsal margins very straight and diverging but
little; apex bluntly pointed ; hind margin beneath it nearly
straight, oblique, bending and becoming more oblique below
the middle; colour pale yellowish-brown or brownish-buff,
usually somewhat dusted and rippled with darker brown;
basal line brown, abbreviated, broken, but distinct near the
costa ; first line brown, perpendicular, formed into a series of
irregular crescents, usually edged inwardly with whitish, and
duplicated; second line curved out from the costa, but
bending back above the middle, and then proceeding
obliquely straight to the dorsal margin, but rippled through-
out into crescents with long points, which touch an exterior
series of dark dots or streaks; subterminal line whitish,
rippled and meandering in its course from before the apex,
where it touches an oblique dark brown streak or triangle,
to the anal angle, edged inwardly with brown, but almost

TRIFIDE. 325

always devoid of the wedge-like streaks which are con-
Spicuous in some other species. Outside this line is an
irregular dark brown cloud lying along the hind margin;
orbicular and reniform stigmata rather small, either brown
edged with whitish, or wholly whitish or greyish-white; the
space between them often darker brown, sometimes con-
spicuously so, forming a somewhat squared spot; claviform
stigma only indicated by a small, uncertain, brownish streak ;
nervures in the middle area of the wings, especially the
subcostal and median, often indicated in white or paler
brown; between the first and second lines is sometimes a
rather slender cloudy brown transverse shade; costal edge
dotted or spotted with brown; extreme hind margin edged
with minute black lunules; cilia light brown, yellowish at
the base. Hind wings ‘rather short, apex rounded, hind
margin rather sinuous; whitish, with the nervures brown,
and the costal and hind marginal regions clouded with
brownish-grey, sometimes faintly and narrowly, often broadly,
and sometimes even darkly so toward the hind margin; in
some cases also forming a cloudy grey transverse stripe ;
central lunule elongated, grey; cilia rather long, pure white.
Female similar, with the body stouter, the antenne simple,
and the fore wings slightly narrower.

Underside of the fore wings greyish-white, becoming
shining white before the hind margin, usually clouded more
or less with slate-grey in the middle area; reniform stigma
indicated by a blackish spot, just beyond which is a narrow,
angulated, dark grey transverse stripe. Hind wings white,
dusted along the costal and hind margins with grey atoms ;
a faint transverse stripe of similar atoms lies beyond the
middle ; central spot elongated, grey. Body whitey-brown ;
legs pale brown, the first pair spotted in front with black ;
leg tufts whitish-brown.

Variable in an extraordinary degree, hardly two speci-
mens being precisely alike, and all the varying forms
shading insensibly into each other through intermediates.

426 LEPIDOPTERA.

Indeed the form from which the above description is taken
is looked upon as the type merely because it is more common
and more generally distributed than the rest, most of which
are in some degree local—and of course because it is the
form from which the original description of the species was
obtained. The varieties in colour and marking seem to
extend equally to both sexes, and even with regard to the
hind wings there is apparently no strict rule.

In the forms ranging more particularly around the type
the ground colour varies from brownish-buff to pale buff,
yellowish-brown, reddish-brown, dull umbreous, and greyish-
brown, throughout its area of distribution; in eastern
districts to whitish-brown or even slate-white; while in the
west the more dull umbreous tints prevail, intensified in the
west of Ireland to an exceedingly dull sordid umbreous, and
blackish-brown. In nearly all cases the colour of the upper
part of the thorax follows that of the fore wings. In some
of those already mentioned the trausverse lines of the fore
wings are distinct, as also are the transverse clouded mark-
ings, and brown blotches are noticeable between and beyond
the stigmata and outside the second line; in others the lines
are distinct but the clouded markings absent, or the lines
have disappeared and the clouding has taken possession ; the
upper stigmata moreover are white, or white with a brown
central cloud, or obscure and devoid of white, or nearly
imperceptible ; the nervures range from whitish to yellowish
or very pale brown, or are concolorous with the rest of the
wings, or very often a portion of the median in the middle
area is marked with a slender straight whitish line. In
individuals where the dark clouding is absent and the trans-
verse lines are conspicuous, the stigmata are sometimes
almost obliterated and the first and second lines drawn
nearer together, duplicated and formed into a very pretty
pattern quite unlike the ordinary forms. In other cases the
lines also disappear, and the fore wings become unicolorous
yellowish-brown, except that a brown spot then shows itself

TRIFIDA. 327

in place of the lower part of the reniform stigma, In the
grey-white or slate-white varieties, which seem confined to
the east coast, and are rare there, the markings are usually
neat, small, sharp, often abundant, the pale nervures edged
with darker and the lines and shades well but slenderly
marked; more rarely these, following the example of the
brown forms, have the markings mainly obliterated ; but on
the north-east coast of Scotland they are sometimes found
much intensified and blackened. On the Lancashire coast a
form is not uncommon, of a dull pale umbreous with the
transverse lines and the upper stigmata indistinct, but the
claviform stigma, a spot before the orbicular, a square blotch
between it and the reniform, and a central basal streak all
blackish. All along our eastern coasts, in company with the
paler forms already described is a range of far more beautiful
varieties, having the ground colour smooth yellowish-brown,
or whitish-brown, shading off to fawn colour, having a very
smooth creamy appearance from the absence of the usual
umbreous clouding. In these the dark crescents on the
collar are often black or deep brown, the transverse lines are
sometimes slenderly distinct, but more frequently absent;
there is a broad white or whitish-brown straight stripe from
the base along the subcostal region, the two upper stigmata
are wholly white or but faintly clouded with brown, coalescing
with the stripe, the claviform stigma is distinct, edged, or
filled with brown or black, and the large squared spot
between the orbicular and reniform stigmata is either rich
dark brown, bright brown, or black; very often also the
space beyond the reniform stigma is richly clouded with
fawn colour. Other specimens have the white subcostal
stripe joined to the two white stigmata, but are devoid of the
dark spots and clouding of fawn colour, and lean toward the
whitish-grey varieties. Others, more particularly from the
coast of Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire, are most ex-
quisitely coloured, the markings just described intensified,
the subcostal stripe, the two upper stigmata, and the median

328 LEPIDOPTERA.

nervure snowy-white, the claviform stigma and the spots
before and between the other stigmata brilliant black, the
hind margin blackened, and the middle of the wing clouded
with rich purplish-red, shading off to brownish-white, or
ashy-white. Another beautiful form from the same district
is dark purple-brown or red-brown with the transverse lines
black, the two upper stigmata dark with sharp white out-
lines, the claviform black-margined, and the hind margin
rich dark purple-brown. For these lovely forms I am much
indebted to Mr. Arthur Horne of Aberdeen. An extreme
variety from this district is deep black-brown but showing
the typical shape of the elbowed second line; others have the
central portion of the fore wings entirely deep black or
black-brown, and the transverse lines obliterated; and
others again in unbroken sequence shade off to dull dark-
brown, pale brown and pale buff, all the typical markings
more or less obliterated, until the species is hardly recog-
nisable ; one specimen is of the colour and appearance of
Hadena chenopodii, another bears a most curious resemblance
to Ayrotis suffusa, and a dark purple-brown example so
closely resembles one of the varieties of A. tritici that it can
only be recognised with any certainty by its underside. A
curious form brought from the Orkneys by Mr. McArthur
is dark slate-colour, smooth and unicolorous except the two
whitish stigmata; others from that locality are much more
ordinary. Those obtained from Unst, Shetland, have the
rich fulvous or tawny colouring, with strong markings, like
those from Aberdeenshire, and they vary comparatively
little. A specimen in the collection of Dr. P. B. Mason, and
taken in Norfolk, differs from all others that I have seen.
It is almost smooth straw colour, but with the transverse
lines thick and complicated, the spaces between stigmata
and hind marginal cloud red-brown, and the whole wings
beautifully variegated.

In many of the forms the hind wings are occasionally
quite white, or on the other hand wholly tinged with greyish-

TRIFIDA. 329

brown, but in the vast majority the grey-brown hind
marginal band is more or less visible.

The underside of the fore wings is far more constant than
the upper, the hind marginal space, beyond the dark stigma
and stripe, being always pale and shining, often white. By
this the species may be recognised when all the characters of
the upper side seem to have been lost.

On the wing at the end of July, through August and in
the beginning of September.

Larva cylindrical, tapering a little at the first three
segments, the head being the smallest, though rounded and
full in outline ; it tapers also in the two hinder segments ;
the segmental divisions and subdividing wrinkles are very
well defined. Head and dorsal plate pale brownish-buff,
body of the same colour when full grown, dorsal line bluish-
grey, edged with darker grey; subdorsal line whitish-grey
or pale grey, edged above with a strongly contrasting dark
greenish-grey line; midway between this and the spiracles
is an interrupted undulating whitish-grey line; spiracular
stripe broad, greyish-white, having a fine dark grey line
running through it; spiracles black; raised dots dark
brown.

When young it is rather long and slender, but as it
approaches half growth it becomes tolerably stout, and when
full grown is very decidedly plump. The general colouring
of the body up to more than half growth is a lively glaucous-
green on the back and rather bluish or greenish-grey on the
sides. Soon after half growth it comes to be parti-coloured
for a time, the front segments remain green, whilst a patch
of ochreous tinges the back of the hinder segments ; by-and-by
this, by degrees, spreads below and extends gradually forward,
keeping pace with the growth of the larva until maturity,
when the colour is as already described. (W. Buckler.)

September to June or even July on Aira precox, Triticum
junceum, Arenaria peploides, Viola, aud other sand-hill

330 LEPIDOPTERA.

plants. Hiding in the daytime at a depth of two or three
inches under the surface of the sand, among the roots of its
food plants; coming up at night to feed. Apparently
hybernating when rather small.

Pura of ordinary shape, moderately stout, smooth and
rather shining, of a pale golden-brown colour. In a compact,
egg-shaped cocoon, at some depth in the sand.

The moth hides in the daytime in dense tufts of
Ammophila arundinacea (Marram-grass) close to the
surface of the sand, and among other plants on the sea
sand-hills, but more particularly under the ledges from
which the sand has been blown away, leaving masses of
entangled roots exposed. From among these it may readily
be shaken out, when it falls upon the sand quite inert, or
crawls lazily away in search of another shelter. Its parti-
ality for this shelter is apparently well known to the birds,
as is testified by the numbers of detached wings to be seen
lying about. At night it flies vigorously, but does not seem
to leave the sand-hills. It is readily obtained by sugaring
bunches of marram-grass, but seems even more fond of the
blossoms of the same grass, and of ragwort growing on the
sands.

Entirely confined to sand-hills on the coast, but local,
usually preferring those of extensive range. Irregular in
appearance, occurring in hundreds in favoured years, but
in some seasons hardly to be found. Apparently on all
‘extensive sand-hills of the east coast from Suffolk to
Yorkshire, and very abundant at times in Norfolk. Much
scarcer on the south coast, but found in Dorset and Devon.
In Wales extremely local, and only recorded from near
Neath, but it reappears in Cheshire and Lancashire. There
is no reason to believe that it has ever been seen in the
Breck-sand district of Norfolk and Suffolk. In Scotland,
on the Edinburgh coast, and those of Aberdeen and
Kincardine, as well as in the Hebrides, Orkney, and Shetland

TRIFIDE. 331

Isles. Widely distributed on the Irish coast—Dublin, Louth,
Down, Antrim, Derry—to Portrush in the extreme north—
Donegal, Sligo, Kerry, and Wicklow. Abroad it does not
appear to be quite so exclusively confined to the coast.
It is found in France, Belgium, Holland, North Germany,
Denmark, Finland, Livonia, Pomerania and Central Russia.

ll. A. nigricans, Z.—Expanse 11 to 14 inch. Fore
wings narrow, blunt, dull brown or blackish-brown; mark-
ings very obscure; stigmata often tinged with yellowish ;
hind wings pale brownish-grey or greyish-white.

Antenne of the male sharply and regularly notched, each
notch surmounted by a small tuft of fine bristles, to beyond
the middle; apical third part simple but ciliated; colour
dark brown. Palpi short, thickly tufted, blackish-brown ;
head dark smoky-brown; collar large, black-brown, dusted
with paler; rest of thorax similar, with a long divided crest
from collar to back, where it is tipped with pale grey;
fascicles short, expanded, rather scanty, brownish-white ;
abdomen dull pale reddish-brown or purplish-brown, with
spreading lateral and anal tufts, the latter barred above
with smoky blackish. Fore wings rather narrow, specially
so at the base; costal and dorsal margins straight; apex
almost rounded or very bluntly angulated; hind margin
rounded and very full; colour dark purple-brown, dark
umbreous, or black-brown, with the markings very obscure ;
basal line suggested by a double blackish streak on the
subcostal and median nervures close to the base; first line
only faintly perceptible, smoky-black, often edged with dull
whitish, perpendicular but angulated and curved; second
line curved but not very oblique, formed into a series of
faint black crescents edged outside with yellowish dots,
or with a yellowish-white line; subterminal line a row of
barely perceptible yellowish dots; orbicular stigma rather
paler, reniform tinged with yellow, claviform just visible,

332 LEPIDOPTERA.

all edged with black; cilia smoky-brown with a paler line
at their base. Hind wings whitish at the base, with the
nervures dark brown, and the hinder portion clouded with
smoky-brown, darkest toward the margin; central spot
smoky-grey, indistinct; cilia white. Female very similar
but with threadlike antenne, stouter body, and hind wings
darker.

Underside of the fore wings shining pale grey, dusted
with white along the costal region, apex, and hind margin ;
sometimes with faintly paler, or darker, clouding about the
reniform stigma; hind wings white, broadly dusted with
grey upon the costal region and toward the hind margin ;
cilia white.

Variation in this species, in spite of the obscurity of its
markings, is very considerable; in the ground colour espe-
cially—to umbreous, clay-red, purple-red, reddish-brown,
pale brown and pale purple-brown, in the southern and
eastern counties and the Fen districts; to blackish, with
yellow reniform stigma, in the north and north-west; and
to almost jet black in Ireland. In some instances, irrespec-
tive of darker or paler colour, the markings become distinct,
and are even added to, a black spot preceding the orbicular
stigma, and a square black or brown blotch occupying the
space between that and the reniform stigma; while the first
and second lines are occasionally bordered with yellowish,
or the reniform stigma is more distinctly yellow, or is quite
of the ground colour; in which last case all the markings
are usually obliterated, leaving the wings unicolorous, or
mottled with the faintest possible confused black streaks.
Of these the dull black and black-brown forms, with
yellowish edging to one or both stigmata, were formerly
looked upon as a distinct species under the name of
A. fumosa; while those of more reddish colour, with the
interspaces of the discal cell black, appear to have been
known as A. obeliscata; and light red or clay-coloured
specimens without the black inter-stigmatic spots as 4. rwrvs.

TRIFIDE. 333

Another form of very dark purple-brown colouring, but the
transverse lines and stigmata all yellowish, and the former
rather spread and clouded, was known as A. dubia. A still
more extreme form in which the yellowish colour runs in
slender longitudinal lines is probably what was known as
A. Marshallana, though this is not so certain; but the
identity of all as one species has long been recognised,
and all are so inextricably blended together by every shade
of intermediate variation, that even as varietal names the
value of these designations is doubtful. The last named
appears to be the most rare. I have taken it on the
Norfolk coast. Typical specimens of nearly all these
forms with the original names attached, from the Haworth
collection, still exist in that of Dr. P. B. Mason, at Burton-
on-Trent. Mr. F. J. Hanbury possesses a specimen having
the purplish front margin of the fore wings as in A, ravida,
which it curiously resembles; and another which has before
the hind margin a distinct row of short, black wedges. A
beautiful specimen taken at Howth, near Dublin, by Mr. G. V.
Hart, is of a rich deep black, with the reniform stigma
edged with yellowish, but the other markings very indistinct ;
its hind wings are not unusually dark. The more brightly
marked forms seem to preponderate in the Cambridge Fen
district, but in most localities the dull and obscurely marked
varieties are in an immense majority.
On the wing in the latter part of July and in August.

Larva when full grown an inch and a half long, smooth
and cylindrical. The colour of the back ochreous-brown,
and in some individuals very bright ochreous; a thin grey
dorsal line margined with blackish, and running through a
series of blackish-brown triangular and diamond shapes is
well defined in some individuals, though obscure in others.
Subdorsal line greenish-black, in some varieties quite black,
and edged below with a narrow line of dirty whitish-green,
then a broad stripe of blackish-green, followed by another

334 LEPIDOPTERA.

dirty whitish-green, narrow, and slightly interrupted line,
and then another darker, broad stripe of blackish-green,
along the lower edge of which are the black spiracles. A
double whitish stripe follows extending down the sides of
the anal prolegs, produced by a line of pale dirty greyish-
ereen running through the middle of the white; under
surface and prolegs greyish-green; ordinary shining warty
spots black; head greyish-brown, mottled and streaked with
black; a dark brown shining plate on the back of the
second segment is divided by three paler greyish lines. Some
of these larvee present great resemblance to several of the
varieties of that of A. tritici; but the double white stripe
above the feet, and the black warty dots, give distinct
characters to the larva of the present species. (W. Buckler.)

September to the middle of June, on clover, plantain,
Heracleum sphondylium and other Umbelliferw, and almost
every description of low growing weeds in cultivated fields,
but apparently not on any grasses. Mr. Buckler’s remarks
on this subject are of great interest. “On May 11, 1865,
Mr. H. Doubleday sent me some larvee which proved to be of
this species, and to that gentleman I am indebted for the
following account of their destructiveness in a field of ten
acres, which in the previous autumn was sown with wheat
and with clover in the early portion of that year. The
clover came up well and the field was green all over with it,
until these larve began to attack it. So prodigious were
their numbers, and so great their power of devastation, that
by the 17th of May not a leaf of clover nor of any weed
remained upon the whole ten acres, though the wheat was
uninjured, and by that time they had left the open field and
gone to the hedge-banks and ditches where a remarkable
scene of destruction presented itself to view; the large
Heraclewm and other umbelliferous plants were stripped of
their leaves, and in short nothing was left but grasses, which
they did not appear to touch. I received other larvee on the
14th of May from Ipswich, feeding on Plantayo major and

LRAPIDZ . 335

P. lanceolata, and the sender reported that they liked a change
of food, and would eat many low plants ; however, I found
that they took readily to clover, and like those before men-
tioned continued to feed to about the middle of June, the
moths appearing from July 15 to 24, varying much in
their appearance and becoming active and restless the
moment their wings were dry.”

Pupa of ordinary form, light brown, thin skinned ; in an
earthen cocoon beneath the surface of the ground.

The moth hides itself in the daytime on the ground at the
roots of plants, or under rubbish, or any convenient shelter.
It flies actively at dusk and at night ; comes occasionally to
light; very freely to sugar; and is extremely fond of
flowers, frequenting those of dock, burdock, ragwort, sun-
flower, tansy and even leek, as well as various garden
flowers, and it has heen found at night sitting on leaves of
tall reeds. Apparently almost confined to comparatively
level localities, rich farm ‘and, marshes and fens, and at
the seaside, more especially to salt-marsh districts.

Not usually very abundant in the southern counties, though
occasionally it increases so in numbers as to become de-
structive, yet found in Kent, plentifully in Sussex, Dorset,
Hants, Somerset, less frequently in Gloucestershire, and by
no means commonly in Devon and Cornwall. Usually
abundant in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, and in the
Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Fen district, where
also it produces some of its most striking varieties ; mode-
rately common in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Herefordshire,
less so in Warwickshire, and rare in Derbyshire. I can find
no record in Wales, where it surely must occur, though it
does not delight in hills. In Yorkshire it is widely dis-
tributed ; also common in Cheshire and Lancashire, where
the mosses produce the darkest forms; and is found, though
not commonly, in Westmoreland and Cumberland. In
Scotland it is recorded from Ayrshire and elsewhere in the

Clyde district, and in the east so far north as Moray. Sir
Thomas Moncreiff used to find it abundantly at Moncreiff
Hill, and very variable, specimens having the yellowish-white
markings being frequent. In Ireland it occurs in the
Dublin district, in Louth, Galway, Antrim, and more rarely
in Down and Derry. Abroad it is common throughout the
continent of Kurope except the extreme north and south,
also in Asia Minor, Siberia, and in North America.

12. A. tritici, Z.—Expanse 1} to ld} inch. Fore wings
rather narrow, blunt, brown in various shades; a whitish or
pale brown subcostal stripe, and below it a blackish streak
from the base ; upper stigmata pale, in a dark discal cell ;
hind wings whitish or pale grey.

Antennee of the male pectinated for three-fourths of their
length, with short solid sharp teeth which taper off, leaving
the apical portion threadlike, the whole finely ciliated, dark
brown. Palpi tufted, dark brown or blackish, paler in front,
but the third joint slender and blackish ; head tufted, pale
brown, barred across the front with dark brown; collar
broad, brown, with two darker cross-bars ; shoulder-lappets
much raised, blackish-brown, paler at the edges; rest of
thorax light brown, slightly crested at the back, and faintly
barred with whitish, tips of crests white; fascicles long,
whitish ; abdomen dark brown shaded at the base with long
whitish scales. Fore wings rather short and narrow, of
fairly even width; costa only faintly rounded; dorsal
margin straight; apex very bluntly angulated, almost
squared ; hind margin beneath it almost perpendicular, but
bent at the middle, and rounded off at the anal angle;
colour umbreous, greyish-brown, or purplish-brown, clouded
and shaded with richer brown, or purple-brown ; on the
costal edge are five or six white dots, and from the base a
broad white, whitish, or pale brown stripe lies straight along
the subcostal region as far as the reniform stigma; median
neryure also white to the same length, and the dorsal

LRIFIDA 337

margin is often tinged with white toward the base. In the
middle of the base beneath the median nervure is often a
short black longitudinal streak or spot—but frequently it is
brown or merged in the dark ground colour—just outside it
on the costa and the median nervure is a slight indication of
a black basal line: first line deep black, cut off by the white
subcostal stripe, but scalloped, broken, and edged inwardly
with white; secoud line oblique, black, also cut off from the
costa, interrupted but nearly straight, edged outwardly with
white ; orbicular stigma rather large, white, ringed with
black and centred with brown; reniform stigma white
margined with black and enclosing a long, curved, grey, black-
edged streak ; rest of the discal cell, before and between the
stigmata, filled up with deep black ; claviform stigma usually
very distinct, edged with deep black; a black streak lies
beneath the reniform stigma, and three or four more, wedge-
shaped and edged with white, beyond the second line, the
base of each wedge being in contact with the subterminal line,
which is whitish, distinct, undulating, and partly broken up
into spots; space beyond it dark purple-grey, or dark brown,
with minute black lunules along the extreme margin; cilia
erey, yellowish at their base. Hind wings rather ample,
white at the base and often so in the central area; nervures
grey, central spot indistinct, grey, forming a long crescent
across the discal cell; apical and hind marginal region
narrowly, or broadly, shaded with brownish-grey ; extreme
marginal line brown ; cilia white, shaded at their base with
light brown. Female slightly stouter, and sometimes with
the fore wings a very little narrower; hind wings more
suffused with grey ; otherwise similar.

Underside of the fore wings dark grey-brown with con-
siderable iridescence on the basal half, but with a narrow
space of long dull scales in the discal cell, beyond which is a
large cloudy-black spot or blotch, sometimes divided by a
pale dash ; hind marginal region dark grey or dark brownish-

grey, rather shining; extreme margin edged with black
VOL, III, ¥

338 LEPIDOPTERA.

lunules; cilia pale grey with whitish dashes. Hind wings
white or whitish, with the whole costal region and hind
margin broadly, or narrowly, dusted and clouded with dark
grey atoms; nervures and central lunule dark grey; very
rarely a dark streak from the costa indicates the commence-
ment of what should usually be a transverse stripe—here
absent. Body brown, anal tuft reddish; legs blackish,
barred with white ; leg tufts whitish, greyer in front.
Variation in this species is so extensive as hardly to be
defined by words, while all the forms, however extreme, are
so completely united by all intermediate gradations that no
satisfactory line can be drawn between any of the different
varieties, though the names which have been applied to them
are sufficiently numerous. ‘The ground colour varies from
whitish-brown through all shades of wainscot-brown, greyish-
brown, reddish-brown, umbreous, chocolate-brown, and rich
purple-brown, to deep brown-black. Specimens may even be
found though rarely, of a pale slate-grey or whitish-grey, and
others of a soft fawn colour. In my own experience such as
these have occurred in Norfolk, where, on the other hand, I
have found my blackest specimens. Elsewhere the blacker
forms seem to be more particularly confined to the west
coast of Ireland and the north and west coast of Scotland. In
markings the variations are perhaps a little more detined.
Ordinarily in all the variations of ground colour the
orbicular and reniform stigmata are visible, either wholly
pale or with pale margins ; though in size the orbicular is far
from constant. With these, especially in the coast forms, is
usually the pale subcostal stripe—white, yellowish-brown,
brownish, or even reddish—and in a considerable proportion
of them a whitish line branches off from the stripe along the
median nervure. In all these distinctly marked specimens
there isa general tendency to clear, smooth colouring, often
beautifully shaded, and to distinctness of the transverse
lines, of the black wedges before the subterminal line, and
especially of the deep black spaces before and between the

TRIFIDAZ. 339

stigmata; and these various characters are combined or
separated in every proportion and variation of arrangement.
It is also a curious circumstance that these well-marked and
handsome forms, in all the colours, seem to be confined, or
almost confined, to the coast, and to the stretch of ancient
coast in the west of Norfolk and Suffolk, known as the
Breck Sand. In Sherwood Forest, as shown by Mr. G. T.
Porritt, a deep purple-brown form prevails, but the usual
inland forms, found mainly upon heaths, are pale umbreous
mottled all over the fore wings with darker umbreous, some-
times showing the stigmata faintly paler, or the transverse
lines rather darker, but often all obscured by the brown
mottling. In these the only distinct marking is sometimes a
well-defined dark brown cloud lying along the hind margin
beyond the subterminal line. Perhaps the tendency of this
range of variations may best be expressed by stating that
the more extreme forms bear in some cases a most curious
resemblance to Caradrina cubicularis, and in others to
Hadena chenopodii. In the coast varieties very curious
resemblances also occur, setting aside the constant resem-
blance of the browner forms to the very closely allied A.
aquilina, some take a purplish or lilac shade which makes
them resemble <A. obelisca ; others, with rich fawn colouring
and strong markings, A. cwrsoria ; others again, with strong
markings and rosy shades of colour, a somewhat more
distant approach to A. agathina ; while in other purple-red
forms an occasional specimen shows so red a subcostal stripe
as to remind one of Noctua plecta, and I have a specimen
from the north of Ireland which but for its far narrower wings
would surely be mistaken for a red Noctua xanthographa with
distinct yellowish stigmata. These suggestions may seem
fanciful, but the actual resemblances are rather startling,
and no method suggests itself by which they may be realised
so good as that of pointing out the species which seem to be
imitated. That there is actual imitation is not, for a
moment, to be supposed, Perhaps the most curious apparent

340 LEPIDOPTERA.

imitation is that to a North American species—A. subgothica;
of this a fine example is before me. Its general colour is
rather dark umbreous, stigmata paler but not strikingly so,
the orbicular small and oblique, the subcostal stripe very
pale brown, and from it, just before the orbicular stigma, a
similar pale brown stripe obliquely down the wing straight
toward the anal angle. This oblique stripe appears, com-
pletely or partially, in occasional specimens of other colour-
ing and markings, which do not at all resemble A. subgothica,
and it is perhaps most frequent in an east-coast form having
whitish-brown or very pale wainscot-brown ground colour,
the fore wings of which are also rather narrow. For some of
the most beautiful forms that I have seen of this species I
am indebted to the kindness of Mr. A. Horne, who has
obtained them on the north-east coast of Scotland. The
usual dark markings in these are of a rich velvety black,
purple-black, and purple-brown, the subcostal stripe clear
white, and in some, the median nervure, the first line and
the two stigmata outlined with the same; others have the
subcostal stripe yellow. Mr. Kenneth Morton has found a
curious form on one of the high hills in Dumfriesshire. It
resembles A. obelisca in some degree, but is more dull in
colour and devoid of the pale subcostal stripe ; transverse
lines distinct, black; stigmata of the ground colour but out-
lined with black; otherwise unicolorous. Hind wings dull
pale grey. One taken in Norfolk by the sons of Mr. F. J.
Hanbury is of a remarkably delicate light brown ; another
found on, the Antrim coast by the Rev. W. FI. Johnson is
equally pale but has the whitish stigmata almost squared,
and the intermediate spot strikingly black.

Many of the forms have been described as distinct species.
Haworth’s valligera— fore wings reddish-grey with the three
stigmata, the lines, and the hind marginal wedges fuscous ; ”
albilinia—* wings with three reddish stigmata, a white longi-
tudinal line, and black lines and wedges; ” and his /incolata—
“ wines reddish with three greyish stigmata, lines and a hind

TRIFIDE. 341

marginal stripe black ;” also Stephens’s sayittifera—* fore
wings grey clouded with white, with a longitudinal black arrow-
shaped line from the base, upper stigmata whitish, centred with
grey, hind wings white ;” vitta—‘ smaller than the last, fore
wings reddish-brown, subcostal stripe whitish, median
nervure also whitish to the middle, upper stigmata whitish
centred with grey, and preceded and separated by black
interspaces ; hind margin greyish with a whitish subterminal
line;” pupillata—<fore wings brownish, transverse lines
grey, margined with dusky or black, middle of the wing
rather pale, upper stigmata greyish, hinder part of the wing
rather uniform brown ;” hortorwm—“ fore wings greyish-black
with the ordinary stigmata reddish margined with black, hind
wings fuscous with darker margins ;” oce/lina—“ fore wings
reddish or dusky with a dusky costal stripe, lines black,
stigmata pale grey ocellated with reddish, hind wings
dusky ”—are all supposed to refer to varieties of this species.
The late Mr. Bentley, fifty years ago, characterised twelve
varieties, but very judiciously refrained from giving the
majority of them names, remarking, “It is useless to de-
scribe more yarieties; it is difficult to find two specimens
alike. In some the teleform (claviform) stigma is wanting,
in others very large; some have no transverse lines, some
one to four; some have no pale costal stripe, some are grey,
others dark fuscous; some dark at base, others at the hind
margin; all are but one variable species.” Excellent! But
it is doubtful whether he—or I even at this great length
—have done full justice to the variability of this interesting
species.

On the wing in July and August, often lasting into
September.

Larva plump, rather short, extremities both small; head
rounded, shining, dirty grey or sometimes dark brown ;
general colour dusky grey, rather shining, minutely dusted
with blackish ; dorsal line slender, of the ground colour, edged

342 LEPIDOPTERA.

with broader stripes of brownish-grey clouding, in which are
afew black spots, one or two each on the middle segments ;
subdorsal and spiracular lines dusky brownish-grey ; spiracles
black ; under surface and feet dirty pale grey; plate on the
second segment barred or spotted with black. Sometimes
the ground colour is wholly dirty reddish, with reddish-grey
stripes deeper in tint. Very similar to that of A. valligerain
colour and markings.

September to May or June on Cerastiwm oad other chick-
weeds, Spergula nodosa, Galinm verum, G. mollugo,and probably
almost any low-growing plants, especially those attached to
sandy soils. Hiding, like its congeners, under the surface of
the sand, or of the earth, in the daytime, but coming out at
night to feed. On the Continent it is one of the species
notorious for their destructiveness to crops. Kollar, in his
treatise on injurious insects, quotes a paper by Count Berol-
dingen, in the Transactions of the Imperial Agricultural
Society of Vienna, upon its devastations on his own estate, in
the year 1835. “The buckwheat (Polygonum fagopyrum)
is only cultivated in sandy unmanured soils, as a summer
crop, where oats and barley do not succeed, in the middle of
the month of June of the second year of the three years rota-
tion of crops. Inthe beginning of July, when the buckwheat
had attained the height of six inches, bare spots appeared
suddenly in the middle of the fields, which from day to day
became larger and more numerous. On a close examination
of these spots a dark grey, partly brownish, caterpillar was
found some inches deep in the earth; it was from one to
one and a half inches long, and its thickness was that of a
small quill. This creature, after feeding at night or early in
the morning on the delicate shoots of the luxuriant buck-
wheat, passes the rest of the day in repose, or perhaps in
gnawing the roots of the plants, in darkness, in the earth.
The devastations of these insects proceeded so rapidly that,
within a week, more than half of the buckwheat fields were
so completely devoured that neither leaf, stem, nor root of

TRIFIDE. - 343

the plants remained, and the fields were completely bare.
Many proprietors tried to raise a fresh crop of buckwheat on
the same ground, and partially succeeded. In the middle of
the month of July several very heavy showers fell, and all
the caterpillars disappeared. Apparently it was not so much
this sudden change in the weather as the period of their
transformation into the pupa state having arrived, and the
sudden cessation of their activity, that caused their sudden
disappearance. Although painfully sensitive to the loss they
had sustained, the farmers consoled themselves, when they
saw the insect disappear, with the hope that it would not
return, as until that period it had been unknown among them.
In September the winter grain was sown as usual. A great
deal of rain having followed this sowing the growth of the
corn was greatly accelerated, and by the end of September
the fields were rich in future promise, when all at once a second
generation of these mischievous insects, which three months
before had robbed the farmer of the greater part of his buck-
wheat crop, now threatened him with the more important
loss of his bread-corn. The mischief spread with the same
rapidity in the rye-fields as it had done in the buckwheat ;
and in the space of a few days very considerable portions
were so entirely laid waste that not a trace was left of the
young plants which had sprung up very thickly from the seed.
Some farmers resolved to sow their fields a second time with
rye, but those who attempted this too soon experienced only
a repetition of their loss. I had the bare corn-fields again
sown with rye about the last week in October. In
ploughing, the caterpillars were found numerous and alive in
the furrows, but they had retired rather deeper into the earth
than usual and appeared less lively and active. A number of
ravens, crows, and daws, the well-known autumnal birds,
which arrived exactly at this period, and which were now
looked upon as welcome guests, enjoyed a rich treat in these
well-fed insects, and satisfied at least in some degree the
wishes of the farmer by their partial destruction of them.”

344 LEPIDOPTERA.

After a discussion of the various proposed methods of destruc-
tion of these larvee, the writer goes on to say that moths pro-
duced from some of these caterpillars clearly showed them to
belong to Noctua tritici. From this account it would appear
that the strong attachment of this species to sandy soil, as
noticed here, is also conspicuous abroad. Doubtless our
more general toleration of birds, and especially of the rook,
protects our crops from similar ravages.

Pupa of ordinary shape, glossy, smooth, yellow-brown ; anal
segment much rounded, both points minute; subterranean.

The moth hides usually in the daytime among dense
masses of sand-hill grasses, or under the overhanging ledges
of these hills, among the roots of grasses. Away from the
coast it doubtless conceals itself on the ground, like its allies.
Should the weather be hot it will fly when disturbed, and it
has been known to fly voluntarily in extremely hot sunshine
and to imbibe the nectar of field-scabious, ragwort and other
flowers. Its ordinary flight is, of course, at night, and it
comes freely to the attraction of sugar, to heather bloom,
ragwort blossom, to those of scabious, tansy, lime and
chestnut, and has even been found to sit upon the leaves of
tall reeds at night.

Usually abundant on coast sand-hills, where also nearly all
the strongly-marked forms are exclusively taken ; inland by
no means plentifully, and then almost confined to sandy
heaths. Extraordinarily abundant at Deal on the coast of
Kent, and thence plentiful all along the sands of the coasts
of the Hastern Counties, to Yorkshire, Durham, and Northum-
berland. Common also along the South coast, and locally
abundant, but becoming less so toward the West, especially
in Devonshire and Cornwall; but more frequent in Somerset
and Gloucestershire, and found in the Scilly Isles not uncom-
monly. Plentiful on the Cheshire and Lancashire coast, and
northward to Cumberland. In Wales apparently less common
and certainly scarce in Pembrokeshire. Inland it seems to

TRIFIDZ. 345

be found, in its browner forms, on almost all heaths but only
in moderate numbers; until within a few years it even
frequented the London district, but now is hardly ever seen
there; in the English Midland Counties I find hardly a
record, but in the Breck-sand district of Norfolk and Suffolk
it is most abundant, and in richly coloured varieties. In
Scotland it continues plentifully up the Hast coast, in
suitable places, to the Moray district and to the Shetlands;
it has also recently been found in the Orkneys and Hebrides,
but otherwise the West of Scotland does not appear to
be greatly favoured with its presence, the records only
attaining to Ayrshire. In Ireland everywhere abundant
on sandy coasts, to Antrim, Derry, and Donegal, but
apparently hardly observed inland. Abroad it is found
throughout Central Europe, Northern Europe except the
coldest portions; in Southern Russia, Siberia, and North
America,

Perhaps it may be well here to call attention to a view
strongly urged in some quarters, that this species with
A, nigricans, A. aquilina, and A. obelisca are all but forms of
one extraordinarily variable species. In a paper translated
from the German of Dr. Adolph Réssler for the Zntomologists’
Monthly Magazine, May 1883, by Mr. W. Warren, Dr.
Rossler says: “A. tritici, L., is certainly the most variable
of all our Noctue in size, markings and colour—nay, even the
antennae seem not to be quite the same in all examples. We
had an opportunity of assuring ourselves on this point very
completely. The devastation caused in vineyards on the
frontiers of Moravia, recorded by Treitschke in vol. 10, part 2,
page 19 of Ochsenheimer’s work, has been repeated in our
neighbourhood at Ockelheim near Bingen, in the years 1871
and 1872, to such an extent that many individuals had their
vineyards destroyed. Hundreds of larvee were collected here
in both years.” Here follows a description of the larva,
which it is unnecessary to reproduce. “The larve lived

346 LEPIDOPTERA.

exactly like earthworms, by day underground, and at night
only on the surface in order to feed. Salad and such-like
succulent plants were much more relished by them than the
tenderest shoots of the vine. The pupa, which possesses an
extremely thin shell, lay in an earthen cocoon. Dr. Pagens-
tecker bred a large number of the larva, with the same results
as myself. In September occasionally a few pass through their
stages and appear in the perfect state, as rather smaller
specimens than those of the first brood, but the large majority
hibernate as larvee. The perfect insects conceal themselves
by day on the earth, in deep crevices of the bark of trees near
to the ground, in chinks of stones, &c. Among the large
number of examples reared in the course of these broods
there were those figured by Hiibner as fwmosa, aquilina,
obelisea, fictilis, unicolor, crata, carbonea, praticola, vitta, and
ruris ; besides the following figured by Herrick-Schiiffer :
adumbrata, rustica, fuwmosa, tritict, and obelisca. All were
plentifully represented, and it could not but be that all
belonged to one and the same species, united as they were by
numerous intermediate forms, Among them were several
forms, especially of fwmosa (nigricans) of a beautiful lilac
tint, which however faded into grey in the course of a year.
One obelisca was entirely lilac-coloured without markings,
with a white costal streak. Of varieties collected at the same
time by night, there are besides to be mentioned a pale
yellowish example, devoid of markings except perfectly black
outlines of the stigmata; and one found by Dr. Schirm,
leaden-coloured throughout, without markings on the fore
wings, of which only the margin of the reniform stigma is
indicated by a black spot.”

In connection with this Mr. Warren adds: “One summer
many years ago I beat out of some ivy which covered the wall
of a garden in this town (Cambridge) a great variety of
common Noctuw, and among them numerous specimens of
Agrotis nigricans and tritici, and two each of A. aquilina
and A. obelisew, I remember having been much surprised at

TRIFIDE. 347

the time at the occurrence of the last two species, the
examples of which I still possess.”

It has seemed only reasonable to reproduce this evidence
in detail. It does not convince me ; indeed the circumstance
last recorded is not remarkable, except for the occurrence of
A. obelisca, and as there is no other record of that species in
our Eastern and East Midland districts, nor an inch of
locality such as it frequents, it is difficult to account for the
two specimens obtained. Perhaps the curious imitations of
other species by varieties of A. fritici, as already noticed,
may partially explain Dr. Réssler’s results, and it is hardly
reasonable to suppose that his multitudes of larvee were, in any
case, all of one species. We have what seems to be sufficient
evidence of the reliability of all these four species, and until
two or more of them have been reared from eggs deposited
by one specimen it will, I think, be safe to regard them as
distinct.

13. A. aquilina, Hiib—Expanse 1} inch. Very similar
to the brown form of A. tritici ; fore wings broader, especially
so at the base, dull brown, clouded with darker ; stigmata
pale brown, in a darker cloud; hind wings whitish, tinged
with brown, and with faintly brown nervures.

Antenne of the male pectinated with short, sharp-pointed
teeth, each crowned by a slender tuft of minute bristles;
these teeth taper off beyond the middle, leaving the apical
fourth part of the antennz simple ; the whole finely ciliated,
brown. Palpi and head densely tufted, reddish-brown ;
collar similar, faintly barred and edged with ashy-white ;
remainder of the thorax reddish-brown, crested at the top
and back, the hinder crests tipped with dark brown and
whitish ; fascicles spreading, whitish ; abdomen dull brown
with small lateral tufts and rather long reddish anal tuft.
Fore wings rather broader than in A. ¢ritict, costa very
slightly rounded; dorsal margin also rounded; apex very
bluntly angulated; hind margin beneath it nearly straight

348 LEPIDOPTERA.

and not very oblique, bending off below the middle; colour
rather glossy soft golden-brown, or reddish-brown, or pale
brown; in the middle of the base is a black streak ; basal
line sometimes faintly indicated as a couple of pale dots
edged with blackish ; first line rather direct, oblique, sloping
outward toward the dorsal margin, composed of black
crescents edged inwardly with paler brown; second line
oblique in the opposite direction, blackish, hardly visible
above the reniform stigma; subterminal line very faintly
paler brown, edged inwardly by a row of long black
wedges, outwardly by a darker submarginal brown cloud; a
pale brown stripe lies along the whole subcostal region to
near the apex, before which is a triangular brown costal spot,
and on the remainder of the extreme costal edge are a few
black dashes; orbicular and reniform stigmata pale brown,
bordered with yellowish-brown, and outside this edged with
black ; before and between them the discal cell is occupied
by rather squared black-brown blotches; claviform stigma
small, edged with black; extreme hind margin edged with
minute black lunules ; cilia pale brown. Hind wings white,
nervures light brown rather than grey; dorsal and hind
margins tinged with ight brown, and the latter edged with
darker brown; cilia white, with a yellowish line at the
base. Female more robust, fore wings broader and rather
more truncate ; antenn simple; abdomen decidedly stouter,
with a very short dull brown anal tuft; otherwise similar—
the hind wings usually hardly darker.

Underside of the fore wings dull pale brownish, or yellowish-
brown, whiter toward the base and dorsal margin, or often
with the shining white portion extending into the middle of
the wing ; discal cell filled with abundant long oblique hairs ;
reniform stigma faintly grey, sometimes followed by a whitish
dash. Hind wings whitish, dusted with brown along the
costal region and hind margin, and with a slender commence-
ment of a brown transverse stripe beyond the middle of the
costa; central spot small, brown.

TRIFIDA. 349

J

Not very variable, though the ground colour is occasionally
more grey-brown, with the subcostal stripe and upper stigmata
whiter, and the space beyond the second line whitish-grey.
In well-marked brown specimens this space is sometimes
whitish-brown, and in these the blackish wedges and all the
minute details of other markings are more sharply defined.
In other examples the markings, except the two upper
stigmata, are often obscured and indistinct. In the female
the hind wings in some specimens are nearly white, and in
rare instances quite so, strongly contrasting with the fore
wings.

On the wing in July and August.

Larva, when full grown, an inch and a half long, cylindrical
and rather shining; the head grey-brown, mottled with
blackish; the back dingy brown; dorsal line rather paler
grey-brown; the subdorsal line black, edged below with a
thin line of grey-brown, which, like the dorsal line, runs
through the blackish plate on the second segment; to this
succeeds a broad stripe of dingy blackish-green; then another
thin line of grey-brown, followed by another broad stripe of
dingy blackish-green, the black spiracles being situated along
its lower edge; under surface and legs grey-brown; raised
spots dark brown and not very conspicuous; the general
aspect of the larva very dark and dingy. (W. Buckler.)

May and June, but doubtless from September, and feeding
at intervals through the winter ; on clover, plantain, chick-
weed, knot-grass, poppy, even onion, and doubtless on any
low-growing plant; burrowing in the ground in the day-
time and feeding at night. Kollar says that the different
species of bedstraw (G'aliwim) are preferred, and he gives an
acccount very similar to that already quoted in the case of
A. tritici, of damage done to vines in Germany by these laryee
when their ordinary food fails. From his statement, how-
ever, it appears that the increase of this species to such an
extent as to become a serious pest is a very rare circumstance,

350 LEPIDOPTERA.

the case noticed by him being the first observed in fifty
years.

Pura apparently undescribed.

This species is regarded by many entomologists here and
abroad as merely a variety of A. tritici, and is so shown in
Dr. Staudinger’s Catalogue. My own opinion to the contrary
is greatly strengthened by familiarity with the insect at large ;
where from its somewhat more robust build and the different
shape of its fore wings it appears obviously distinct. The
brown nervures of its hind wings also appear to me a good
character. Its habits are as in its congeners—to hide on the
ground among herbage during the day and to fly at night ;
coming very eagerly to blossoms of lime, ragwort, scabious,
ox-eye daisy, centawrea and many other plants. Kollar
found it flying in numbers about blossoms of Clematis. When
actually in company with A. ¢ritici on the same flowers it
may instantly be discriminated.

In my own experience it is especially attached to chalk
districts, though not confined tothem. The records are some-
what incomplete and not always reliable; but it is found
commonly in Norfolk and Suffolk, the Cambridgeshire Fen dis-
trict, and Reading, Berks, whence I have recently seen very fine
specimens taken by Mrs. Bazett. No doubt it occurs in suit-
able places throughout the Southern Counties, though the other
records seem only to include Sussex, Dorset, Devon, Somerset
and Gloucestershire, in no case commonly. Also in Oxford-
shire, Herefordshire, rarely in Leicestershire and Derbyshire,
apparently absent from most of the Midlands and not noticed
in Wales. It certainly occurs in Yorkshire, but the record
for Cheshire and Lancashire, “on sand-hills and in mosses,”
has a dubious appearance. In Scotland it is said to have
been taken in Clydesdale, and Mr. South records it from the
Hebrides; other Scottish localities, as the Tweed district,
Moray and the Orkneys, are furnished by Dr. Buchanan
White, but further evidence is desirable, It is not certainly

TRIFIDEA. 351

known to occur in Ireland at all; such recorded captures as I
have had opportunities of investigating have proved erroneous ;
and Mr. Kane, while stating that it occurs in many places,
only refers to it as a variety of A. tritici. Abroad it is found
throughout Central Europe, and in Southern Russia, Siberia,
and Armenia.

[A. subgothica, Haw.—This species is very much like
one of the varieties of A. tritici, already adverted to. Its
antennz are slightly pectinated in the male, thorax squared
in front, but more narrowed behind, and the abdomen of the
male rather slender; collar edged with black-brown; fore
wings, aS in the variety mentioned, except that they are
decidedly broader behind, pale umbreous with the markings
deep umbreous ; a stripe of the pale ground colour along the
subcostal nervure, and another branching from it along the
median, the latter continued obliquely toward the anal angle;
transverse lines hardly indicated ; orbicular stigma triangular
and intimately joined to the subcostal pale stripe, on each
side of it, and also joined below it, is a deep black spot, the two
forming a sort of hook; reniform stigma light brown;
claviform long, blackish, and extended back in a broken
stripe to the base: spaces beyond the reniform stigma and
along the hind margin each clouded with deep umbreous,
divided by the paler nervures. Hind wings whitish, with a
cloudy brownish submarginal band.

Described as British by Haworth, who stated that it was
very rare in England, but that he had seen three specimens
in cabinets. Stephens figured it very accurately from a
specimen obtained by the late Mr. Raddon, near Barnstaple,
Devon. He also recorded it from near London and from
Norfolk. Wood’s figure appears to be from the same speci-
men; that of Noel Humphreys looks more doubtful, since its
fore wings are narrower, but he states that it is a copy of
Stephens’s figure. It looks more like the variety of A. tritici.
More recent writers on British species have ignored it,

352 LEPIDOPTERA.

In the collection of Dr. P. B. Mason at Burton-on-Trent
are two specimens, both evidently old and rather carelessly
set. One of these is ticketed as from the collection of Mr.
Raddon, and taken near Barnstaple; the other is from the
cabinet of the late Mr. Edwin Brown. That these are not
A. tritici, and that they are A. subgothica, is fully demonstrated
by their accurate agreement with the figures of Stephens and
Wood, as well as with Haworth’s description.

The species is, however, North American, as was pointed
out long ago by the late Mr, Henry Doubleday; and this is
further proved by the agreement, both of figures and moths,
with photographs of A. swhgothica, taken from North American
specimens and furnished by Mr. M. V. Shingerland, of
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Dr. Mason’s two
specimens have also been examined and recognised by Mr.
W. Mansbridge, who has spent some years in the United
States, and has found the moth abundantly in that country.
He informs me that its larva is there well known as the Corn
poll-worm, and that it feeds in the ears of maize, inhabiting
the cob or envelope. Also that the moth sometimes abounds
in granaries in April and May, hiding itself under any
articles thrown upon the ground, such as matting, or under
boarding, and creeping closely into any small crevice in the
woodwork. Professor Smith states that it inhabits the United
States and Canada, occurring in the more northern States in
July and September, but in Colorado in August. So plentiful
is it in the State of New York that 2382 specimens were
captured, in one season, at a series of six experimental trap-
lanterns set up on the University farm at Ithaca, for the
purpose of testing the value of the lamps in the destruction
of noxious insects. The effectiveness of this wholesale
slaughter was, however, diminished by the circumstance that
of the whole number of moths of this species destroyed, 2240
were males and only 142 females. No other species was
captured in equal abundance.

Mr, Doubleday was of opinion that the supposed British

TRIFIDA. 353

specimens had been received from North America and mixed,
accidentally or otherwise, with British insects. But taking
into account that the captor, Mr. Raddon, was a good ento-
mologist and highly respected, it is far more probable that
the specimens obtained by him had been accidentally intro-
duced with produce—perhaps rough timber—from America ;
especially as Barnstaple, with Bideford, so long took a large
part in the trade with that country. |

14. A. obelisca, Hiib—Expanse 12 to 1} inch. Fore
wings with rather a full anal angle ; purple-brown, with paler
subcostal stripe ; upper stigmata small, pale, in a blackish
cloud; hind wings whitish, margined with grey.

Antenne of the male notched to the middle with short
pointed teeth, each of which is tipped with a minute tuft of
bristles; nearly the apical half simple; densely ciliated
throughout; black-brown. Palpi rather broadly tufted,
dark brown, paler in front; head red-brown, dusted with
white; collar broad, reddish-brown, banded with black,
whitish, and dark brown, in consecutive stripes, and edged at
the back with white ; shoulder-lappets blackish-brown, edged
above with white dots; top of the thorax dark brown, fully
crested from collar to back, all the points of the crests tipped
with white and barred with purple-brown ; fascicles slender,
smoky-white; abdomen golden-brown, covered toward the
base with shining greyish-white scales ; lateral tufts spreading,
anal tuft narrow, brown. Fore wings somewhat oblong ;
costal and dorsal margins straight; apex bluntly rounded ;
hind margin below it straight to the middle, then rounded
rather fully at the anal angle; colour dark purple-brown ;
along the subcostal region is a broad paler stripe to beyond
the middle ; basal line only indicated by a faint blackish
spot close to the costa and two black streaks in the middle of
the base ; first line black, faintly duplicated, forming two or
three slightly oblique curves ; second line indistinct, formed
of an oblique series of black cloudy spots ; subterminal line

VOL. UL Z

354 LEPIDOPTERA

a very slender, indented and irregular whitish thread, out-
side which is a smoky-brown cloud ; and inside it sometimes
indications of a few blackish wedges; orbicular and reniform
stigmata rather small but conspicuous, ashy-white, the latter
centred with yellowish; the rest of the discal cell, before and
between them, deep black; claviform stigma black, broadly
wedge-shaped; cilia greyish-brown. Hind wings whitish ;
nervures and hind margin dusted with golden-brown; cilia
white. Female similar, rather stouter; hind wings in some
Specimens more suffused with grey-brown.

Underside of fore wings shining smoky-grey, with the
nervures paler; of the hind wings whitish, with the costal
margin very broadly dusted with brown; hind marginal line
brown. Body golden-brown; legs purple-brown, barred with
pale brown ; leg tufts smoky purplish-grey.

Very little variable, and this mainly in the shade of colour
of the fore wings, which in some specimens is of a paler
purple-brown, in others, but more rarely, pale slate-brown ;
in some examples the first transverse line is complete,
dividing the pale subcostal stripe ; and I possess a specimen
in which this line is very distinctly shown and more perpen-
dicularly placed than usual. In the collection of Mr. F. J.
Hanbury is another even more strongly marked. Specimens
from the Isle of Wight seem to have a general tendency
toward greyer colour, those from western districts to more
purple shades.

On the wing in August and the beginning of September.

Larva moderately stout, especially behind the middle, but
with head and anal segment rather small; pale slate grey ;
dorsal line of the ground colour, bordered on each side by a
purplish-brown stripe, which is sometimes broad and distinct,
at others divided into two separate lines which represent its
margins, having on its upper edge, on each segment from the
third or fourth, a distinct black spot; beneath are two more
longitudinal stripes faintly purplish- brown or grey-brown, the

TRIFID 4. 355

lower enclosing the spiracles, which are blackish, but in some
examples quite black, and attended each by two black spots
beneath, on each segment from the sixth to the eleventh ;
head and dorsal plate pale grey-brown, the latter strongly
marked with the browner longitudinal stripes ; legs black ;
prolegs and undersurface yellowish-white or very pale grey ;
usual raised spots of the ground colour, each bearing a short
hair.

According to Mr. Buckler, when younger they are greyish-
brown on the back, blackish-green on the sides ; subdorsal
stripes broadly blackish-green ; dorsal line pale grey, thin,
enclosed between the subdorsal stripes. Along the middle
of the side runs in an undulating manner a pale greenish-
grey line, somewhat interrupted and irregular in thickness;
and at some distance below, immediately under the black
spiracles, is a broad stripe of dirty whitish, having a fine line
of dirty whitish-green running through the middle of it. In
the middle of June, probably after a moult, much more
brightly coloured, pinkish or pinkish-ochreous on the back,
the dorsal line passing through a pear-shaped marking of
pinkish-grey on each segment, the small end of the pear
behind; the sides dark pinkish-grey with opaque whitish
ragged lines below the spiracles, and the whole of the under-
surface and the prolegs white, rather shining, and having a
lovely opalescent gleam of pinkish. After ten days these
bright colours begin to fade and the adult colouring to be
assumed.

Probably from October to July, on Helianthemum vulgare,
and doubtless on many other herbaceous plants, growing in
the chinks and crevices of rocks, and high up on rocky hill-
sides. Mr. Gregson says that he obtained a number of larvee
by digging out the vegetation from the lines of softer strati-
fication in the sides ot rocks, finding the larve among the
roots of the plants. Mr. Buckler’s specimens were found
early in June, at which time they differed greatly in size, the
smallest being very dark,

356 LEPIDOPTERA.

Pupa apparently not described.

The moth doubtless hides during the daytime among thick
herbage in chinks and crevices of rocks, but it is rarely seen
by day. I took several specimens on one occasion on the
railings of the balcony surrounding the lantern of a light-
house, to which they had doubtless been attracted on the
previous night. It comes freely to light and also to the
blossoms of ragwort, and in either case settles down perfectly
quietly. It has also been secured at heather blossom, and
comes freely to sugar in its very restricted localities. These are
usually rocks on the coast, or high hills inland. It is plentiful
in some seasons at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, and is found
at Torquay, Mount Edgecumbe, and Padstow, in Devon and
Cornwall ; in the Scilly Isles ; has been recorded at Brighton
and at Scarborough ; at the eastern end of the Cotswolds in
Gloucestershire ; also in Herefordshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire
and Cheshire. The most remarkable captures of the species
in England, however, were at Sutton Park, near Birmingham,
where two unmistakable specimens were taken, at sugar, in
1893 or 1894, by Mr. and Mrs. Abbott; and another by
Mr. G. W. Wynn in 1895. This locality is 500 feet above
sea level, but is not rocky, and the presence of the species
there is somewhat perplexing. In South Wales I have
obtained it from the Island of Caldy, near Tenby, and have
little doubt that it is common on all the very wild and rocky
range of coast of South Pembrokeshire. In Scotland it has
been taken on several portions of the Hastern coast, extending
to Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire; and also on the South-west
coast. Inland, Sir Thomas Moncrieff found it commonly on
Moncrieff Hill, Perthshire, from 100 feet upwards. In
Ireland it used to be common on the Hill of Howth, near
Dublin, but was nearly exterminated there by ruthless col-
lecting ; it has also been found near Dungarvan, Waterford ;
and at Mount Charles, Donegal.

Abroad it is said to be widely distributed in Southern,

TRIFIDE. 357

Western, and Central Europe, and found also in the South
of Sweden, North of Italy, and Livonia.

15. A. agathina, Dup.—tExpanse, 14} inch. Fore wings
bright rosy or purplish-red ; upper stigmata whitish, united
to a similar subcostal stripe, edged beneath with black;
hind wings grey.

Antenne of the male notched almost throughout with
sharp conical teeth, each crowned with a minute tuft of
bristles; purplish brown. Palpi moderately tufted, purple-
brown, with the apical portion white; head pale grey in
front, purplish-brown above; collar bright light purple,
slenderly barred with black and edged with whitish;
remainder of thorax rich purple-brown, with a slight
divided crest from collar to back; fascicles dense, smoky-
white; abdomen pale purplish-grey, lateral and anal tufts
spreading, purplish-brown. Fore wings rather narrow at
the base; costal margin faintly rounded; dorsal margin
straight; apex squarely angulated; hind margin truncate,
but rounded off at the anal angle; colour an exquisite pale
rosy, rosy brown, or purplsh-pink, with a broad paler or
yellowish stripe along the subcostal region; a small black
streak at the base of the costa, and another along the base
of the median nervure; first line very slender, black,
forming a series of long angulated bends, and placed
obliquely; second line also very slender, black, sharply
angulated at the dorsal margin, thence obliquely more
direct to above the reniform stigma, where it bends strongly
back to the costa; subterminal line a series of irregular
whitish spots and angles, edged inwardly with deep purplish,
and in the middle by three or four deep black wedges ;
outside it rather clouded with grey. In the space from the
first to the subterminal line the nervures are mainly streaked
with black. Orbicular stigma very small, whitish, usually
enclosed in a long wedge-shaped black blotch, but sometimes
united to the white subcostal stripe; reniform stigma also

358 LEPIDOPTERA.

united to this stripe, whitish, otherwise edged with black,
and containing a grey cloud; claviform stigma slenderly
edged with black; cilia shining purplish-white. Hind
wings large, glossy whitish tinged with grey-brown, es-
pecially toward the hind margin where is a large cloud;
nervures greyish; central streak elongated, grey-brown,
followed by a slender similar transverse stripe ; cilia white.
Temale with simple antenne and stouter abdomen, otherwise
quite similar.

Underside of the fore wings dark grey, strongly shaded
with purple along the costa and hind margin; reniform
stigma faintly blackish, followed by two very indistinctly
blackish transverse stripes. Hind wings whitish, costal
region dusted with purplish, hind margin with grey ; central
spot dark grey-brown, followed by a distinct grey transverse
stripe. Body and leg-tufts purple-brown; legs blackish,
barred with yellowish.

Rather constant in colour and markings, except for
climatic variations. The colour is more richly pink in the
South and Hast of England. In the north, and especially
in Scotland, it is intensified into a deep dark purplish-brown,
or purplish-black, most of the markings thereby obscured,
but the pale subcostal stripe conspicuous though narrower
and more curved, uniting with the pale orbicular stigma;
the reniform stigma is also paler. ‘This dark race is found
as far south as Delamere Forest, Cheshire, and in some parts
of Yorkshire. In the extreme north of Scotland, as at
Stornoway, it disappears, and is replaced by pale colouring—
pale purplish, pale lilac, or even purplish-white. Irish
specimens are of rather full size, and usually of a greyer
shade of rosy, but occasionally richly pink, and one specimen
taken at the Hill of Howth by Mr. Fitzgibbon is of a
singular pale colour, almost yellowish with a pink tinge.
In Mr. E. A. Atmore’s collection is a specimen, taken near
King’s Lynn, of a rich crimson, with the subcostal stripe
yellow and the markings very conspicuous. Dr. Mason has

TRIFIDEA. 359

one of a curious pale lilac-grey, and another of a rich dark
purple-brown, much clouded and streaked with deep black,
and with the pale subcostal stripe cut short not far from the
base.

On the wing in August and September.

Larva smooth, cylindrical, slightly tapering in front, having
a few minute hairs on the head and body. Colour purplish-
brown, grey, or green, darker on the back and shaded with
blackish on the sides; dorsal line whitish ; subdorsal broad,
white, margined above by a row of conspicuous, short, black,
longitudinal streaks, beneath with .reddish; having also a
dorsal series of diamond markings, very indistinct; spira-
cular stripe broad, yellowish, with a pale purplish, greenish,
orange, or reddish spot on each segment, and shaded beneath
with dark grey atoms. Head pale brown, the lobes outlined
with blackish ; spots and spiracles black; undersurface pale
brownish or greenish-ochreous. When young the dorsal
line of diamonds is more distinct. (C. Fenn.)

Dr. Riding says that the young larva is at first bluish-
leaden in colour and covered all over with short hairs; the
head very large and brown; the abdominal legs on the
seventh and eighth segments rudimentary; and the attitude
of the infant larva sphinx-like, or looping as it walks.
After the first moult the head, which is still brown, has
become smaller than the next segment, which now bears a
small plate; the body colour is row glaucous or pale olive-
green; the raised spots faintly marked, black, each with a
short hair; and the abdominal legs on the eighth segment
better developed but still not fit for use. After the second
moult the head is pale brown with darker lobes and paler
central line; the body dark glaucous to olive-green, in some
with a brownish shade; dorsal and subdorsal lines pale and
distinct, especially the former; spiracular line white, broad
and conspicuous, with the spiracles along its upper edge;
legs brown; prolegs pale translucent green with brown

360 LEPIDOPTERA.

extremities which are furnished with many hooks; all the
prolegs now fully developed and in use. After the third
moult the head is pale brown with an olive tint and three
pale lines; the body olive or grass-green in colour, darker on
the sides than on the back; dorsal line almost pure white ;
subdorsal less conspicuous and faintly tinged with yellowish-
green; spiracular line hardly so conspicuous as before, and
with a pale yellow blotch on each segment beneath the
spiracles. After the next moult the general colour is reddish-
brown, most distinctly so on the back, and darkest just above
and below the spiracular line, the underside pale brownish ;
dorsal and subdorsal lines white and very distinct, the
former widest in the centre of each segment and both
narrowed and darkened at each division; spiracular line
broad and conspicuous, wrinkled, and having a rust-coloured
blotch in the middle of each segment; head pale brown,
translucent, and having a darker line on each side. After
the fifth moult, when the larva is an inch long, the colour
has become a rich velvety reddish-brown, mottled with pale
spots on the back, and tinged with purplish or olive-green in
the subdorsal area; the dorsal and subdorsal lines white but
narrow avd broken, most distinct on the second segment ;
the black edging above the subdorsal lines now begins to
appear, but the spiracular line is still broad, white, and with
the rusty blotches. From this stage the adult colouring is
gradually assumed.

September to June, feeding through the winter, except in
the most severe weather, on Calluna vulgaris, Erica cinerea,
and LH. tetralic ; feeding at night and passing the daytime
extended and clinging closely to stems of heather, “ their
colour admirably mimicking the reds and browns of the dead
and living twigs, with their lights and shades, and rendering
the larvae very difficult to find. In confinement they
seemed to keep to the thickest parts of the food plant during
the day in preference to other places of concealment.” (W.
S. Riding.) It thus appears that this larva does not, by

TRIFIDE. 361

preference, hide itself under ground, like most of its con-
geners.

Jn confinement, whether reared trom the egg, or swept up
from the heather, or found by searching it at night either in
autumn or spring, it seems almost impossible to bring this
larva to maturity. The only way in which it can, so far as
I know, be reared, is by confining it upon growing plants of
heath or heather in the open air. This can be managed by
using a large flower pot and covering the whole plant with
gauze. Mr. Gregson says, ‘‘ you should keep them separate
as much as possible. On no account let them crowd one
another. Cut a very large sod of peat with heather growing
on it and get it brought home in a sack. Always sprinkle
the food with water-——many larvee are lost when full-fed for
want of a drink of water. ‘The larve of this species are
almost the most sluggish things I know ; often they will
remain on one twig for two or three days.”

Pupa undescribed—probably hardly known.

The moth is never seen in the daytime; doubtless it
conceals itself on the ground among heather. It flies at
dusk, usually at rather late dusk, and settles upon the
blossoms of heather (Calluna vulgaris). It has, I believe,
been taken at sugar, but very rarely, and no other blossom
except that of heather seems to have any attraction for it,
not even those of the two heaths, Hrica tetralix and cinerea.
When flying at dusk about its favourite plant it may partially
be discriminated among the commoner species by its very
dark appeararce, arising from the darkness of its hind wings.
Its flight is very short, and the best method of obtaining it
is to search the great masses of heather-bloom with a
lantern. Sometimes it seems to prefer the shelter of trees,
more especially Scotch fir.

Almost wholly confined to sandy heaths, though there is
a single record of its capture at Whittlesea Mere, and it is
still found rarely in the Cambridge fen and chalk districts,

362 LEPIDOPTERA.

as near Ely and Newmarket. Not very scarce on the heaths
of Surrey, Kent, Hants, Dorset, Berks, Bucks, Devon,
Suffolk and Norfolk; rare in Sussex, and in Warwickshire,
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire; also found in Cheshire,
Lancashire, Yorkshire, Westmoreland and Cumberland ; in
Wales near Saundersfoot in the South, and Dolgelly in the
North. Much commoner and more widely distributed in
Scotland, and even abundant on the heathery hills of
Morayshire and Perthshire, and probably in all similar
localities, since it is found even in the Orkneys and Hebrides.
In Ireland also rather widely distributed, though very un-
certain in numbers; occurring at Howth near Dublin, in
the hilly district of Wicklow, in Galway, and in the North
in the neighbourhood of Londonderry. Abroad its range
seems to be comparatively restricted, being apparently con-
fined to France, Belgium and Germany; but it surely must
exist in Scandinavia.

16. A. porphyrea, /Hiil.; strigula, Staud. Cat.—
Kxpanse 1} inch. Fore wings purplish-red with white longi-
tudinal lines; transverse lines and stigmata also edged with
white ; hind wings grey.

Antenne of the male strongly notched with saw-like teeth,
each with a minute tuft of bristles at its apex, but termi-
nating beyond the middle, leaving the apical portion of the
antennz simple; ciliated throughout, purplish-brown.
Palpi and head densely tufted, bright purple-brown ;
collar very pretty, barred successively with fulvous, dark
purple-brown, and white, and having behind it another
white bar across the thorax, which, with the raised shoulder-
lappets, is rich purple-brown dusted and edged with
white, the crests on the top and back also tipped with white.
Fascicles yellowish-brown; abdomen purplish-brown, with
the lateral and anal tufts more brightly coloured. Fore
wings narrow and rather truncate; costal margin very
faintly curved; dorsal margin straight; apex bluntly angu-

TRIFID. 363

lated ; hind margin yery slightly curved and but little
oblique ; colour rich purple dusted with blackish; nervures
white, or dusted with white; basal line incomplete, deeply
indented, black, broadly edged outside with white ; first lime
perpendicular, black, very deeply indented, edged inwardly
with white, which joins upon the subcostal nervure the white
edging of the basal line; second line much curved and com-
posed of small purple-black crescents, broadly edged outside
with white; subterminal line a succession of irregular, ill-
defined, cloudy-white spots, partially edged inside with black
spots ; costal margin streaked with black and spotted with
white; orbicular stigma small, round, white, ringed with
black ; reniform stigma also small, white, edged with black
and enclosing a purplish cloud; claviform stigma purplish or
whitish, completely edged with black, sometimes even enclosed
in a black cloudy streak from the first to the second line;
extreme hind margin alternately spotted with black and
white; cilia shining purplish-brown. Hind wings grey-
brown with a golden gloss; nervures rather darker ; cilia
whitish. Antenne of the female threadlike, abdomen
stouter, otherwise quite similar.

Underside of the fore wings shining smoky-brown, tinged
at the margins with purple or red; hind wings white with
brown nervures, and the costal margin broadly reddish.
Body and legs purple-brown. Slightly variable in the depth
of the purple ground colour, in the amount of white upon the
nervures, and in the distinctness of the white markings, most
of which in some individuals become obscured, or more rarely
obliterated, except that the orbicular stigma is constant and
conspicuously white. There is, however, a strong tendency
to climatic alteration in colour, which in the south of Scot-
land becomes a darker purple, and in the mountain districts
dark purple-brown or purple-grey with a smoky hue. Those
from the Shetland Isles are often much suffused with dark
colouring and their markings obscured. Similar dark forms
are found in mountain districts in Germany.

364 LEPIDOPTERA.

In its colour and peculiar white markings this species
presents a curious and deceptive resemblance to a spike ot
blossom of Hrica cinerea, and a still closer mimicry of a purple-
brown shoot.

On the wing in June and July.

Larva stout, cylindrical, head smaller. (General colour pale
reddish-brown or umbreous ; dorsal line of the ground colour,
enclosed betwen two black longitudinal lines, so curved on
each segment as to form a series of long loops, one on each,
from the second to the twelfth; on the thirteenth are two
black spots at the same level; subdorsal lines slender, greyish,
forming the upper edge of a broad stripe of the ground
colour or of white, which is edged below with another grey
longitudinal line, along which lies a series of black, or
blackish, oblong spots. Spiracular line slender, blackish ;
below it is a pale or whitish stripe; spiracles black. Legs
and undersurface pale brown; head shining, pale reddish,
barred with grey. Other specimens are paler brown, almost
drab, the dorsal line white and edged with black blotches ;
and other strong black spots along the spiracular region.
Another variety has the ground colour reddish, the dorsal
stripe yellow, and bright red subdorsal streaks. All, but
the last more particularly, bear a close resemblance to twigs
and spikes of buds of the food plants. Larve furnished by
Mr. C. 8S. Gregson.

August to May on Calluna vulgaris and Hricu cinerea,
feeding only at night, but apparently hiding during the day
only among dead leaves and twigs on the ground.

Pupa of ordinary form, extremely glossy and polished, rather
cylindrical except the abdominal segments, which are short
and rapidly tapering; anal segment terminated by a
triangular projection and two parallel straight spines; very
dark red-brown. Ina slight cocoon on the surface of the
ground or immediately beneath it.

The moth hides during the day among heather, probably

TRIFIDA. 365

sitting in the thick tufts, but if the sun is hot may often be
disturbed, when it flies swiftly away; or in some cases it
may be found flying voluntarily in the sunshine, and visiting
the heath blossoms. Its natural flight, however, is at dusk
and in the night, and it is extremely fond of the flowers of
Erica cinerea, the only species of heath which is in bloom at
the usual time of its existence in the winged state. Except
perhaps wood-sage, no other flowers seem to attract it, and
it usually appears to regard sugar with contempt, though
there is a record in Scotland of its capture at that bait.

Found almost wholly upon sandy heaths, and in such
situations abundant in most of the Hastern and Southern
counties of England, but scarce in Cornwall ; very scarce in the
Hastern midland district and apparently absent from the fens ;
but found on heaths throughout the Midlands and in Here-
fordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire. Yorkshire, Westmoreland
and Cumberland. Probably common in Wales except in the
extreme south-west, where it is scarce. Very generally dis-
tributed and common in suitable places in Scotland from
Roxburghshire and Arran to Ross, and in the Hebrides and
Shetland Isles. In Ireland also plentiful and widely distri-
buted, occurring wherever itsfood plants abound. Abroad it
ranges throughout Central Kurope and all the more temperate
portions of Northern Kurope, and is also found in North
Italy.

17. A. preecox, Z.—Hxpanse 1} to 1? inch. Fore wings
narrow, shining glaucous-green with black lines, white

stigmata and spots, and a purple stripe near the hind
margin ; hind wings greyish.

Antenne almost threadlike, but for a short distance from the
base pairs of small tufts of fine bristles suggest pectinations ;
whole length ciliated; dark brown, hairs whitish. Palpi
small, white, dusted with grey; apical joint white; head
velvety-white ; collar broadly white, dusted and very faintly
barred with grey atoms; shoulder-lappets rather raised,

‘

366 LEPIDOPTERA.

mixed grey and white, with slender blackish lines, and black
spots at the edges; remainder of thorax grey mixed with
white, crested with three pairs of tufts which are barred
and tipped with blackish ; fascicles spreading, smoky-white ;
abdomen decidedly flattened, dark grey, with an abundant
covering of smoky-grey scales, more whitish toward the
base ; these long scales are raised on the back into broad
tufts, imitating abdominal crests ; lateral and anal tufts small,
smoky grey. Fore wings long and narrow; costa very faintly
curved ; dorsal margin straight ; apex rounded ; hind margin
also rounded and full but very short, and hardly oblique ;
colour a peculiar, almost glaucous, green, dusted with white ;
basal line incomplete, consisting of two or three short black
curves edged with white; first lime black, perpendicular, but
scalloped and undulated and edged inwardly with white ;
second line far beyond the middle of the wing, more oblique,
black, composed wholly of crescents between nervures, edged
outside with two whitish parallel shades; a white, or
greenish-white blotch occupies the apex, and from it arises
a slender whitish subterminal line which is bordered inside
by a purple stripe, outwardly by small blackish clouds along
the hind margin; costa spotted with black and white;
orbicular stigma large, white, ringed with black and having
a purplish central cloud; reniform stigma also large and
white, usually containing two smaller greyish clouds with
purplish centres joined by a fine line; claviform stigma
broad, white, faintly edged with black; extreme hind margin
edged with deep black lunules; cilia white, spotted with
purplish-grey. Hind wings broad and ample; grey-brown,
with a golden gloss; along the hind margin is an irregular
whitish stripe which is edged by a dark brown line; central
spot obscure, elongated, blackish ; cilia white. Antenne
of the female more strictly threadlike ; otherwise extremely
similar.

Underside of the fore wings pale bluish-grey, with a large
smoky-grey cloud in the middle ; beyond is an angulated

TRIFIDA. 367

slender blackish transverse stripe, and before the apex a
blackish costal triangle. Hind wings shining yellowish-
white ; costal margin broadly dusted with bluish and ashy-
grey ; central crescent, and a transverse stripe beyond it,
biackish ; anda black line at the hind margin. Body silvery-
grey ; legs brown, barred with white ; leg tufts greyish-white.

Extremely constant in colour and markings; but I have
seen a specimen from the North of Ireland in which the
subcostal, median, and subdorsal nervures of the fore wings
are darkly coloured, so that three very straight, nearly
parallel lines extend almost the whole length of the wings.
Mr. F. N. Pierce has an exquisitely lovely variety taken near
Liverpool, pale green throughout, with but faint traces of
the usual markings.

On the wing in August and the beginning of September.

Larva plump, cylindrical, but with the segmental divisions
rather well marked ; head a little smaller, pale brown, with
a V-shaped mark in the front of the face ; body variable in
colour, the ground colour being usually some shade of slate-
grey, dark or pale; dorsal line usually very pale grey or
white, swelling out on the back of each segment of the body
so as to form a chain of spindle-shaped markings joined at
their ends, and edged on each side by a slender, undulating
brown.or blackish line ; adjoining this is the subdorsal stripe,
broad, red-brown, light red, or dull brown, edged below with
a fine blackish line and a slender yellowish or whitish stripe,
which again is followed by a broad lateral stripe of blue-
grey, or slate-grey, or eyen pale lilac-grey, at the lower
margin of which are the black spiracles. Sometimes this
lateral stripe is dusted with darker atoms. Legs and under-
surface very pale grey, the sub-spiracular stripe sometimes
of that colour, in other cases yellowish. Sometimes the
dorsal line is bluish-grey and all the stripes of full colouring ;
in other cases, and especially when quite full fed, all the
colouring is paler, Usually the second segment is paler

368 LEPIDOPTERA,

than the rest of the body, and often it has a whiter patch on
each side.

September to June, or even July, on the dwarf sallows
which grow so closely to the ground on some sandhills, or on
fine grasses, chickweed, and probably other low-growing
sandhill plants, since it is not confined to those sandhills on
which are patches of sallow. In confinement it will eat
willow and osier. Feeding at night. Dr. Ellis says that it
has the habit of eating right through a sallow leaf so as to
separate a portion, which it then holds between its anterior
feet and proceeds to devour. During the day it hides
beneath the surface of the sand, and is said to be readily
discoverable by its track on the sand and the tiny hillock
under which it lies concealed. When dug out it, at first,
seems stiff and sluggish, but after a few minutes it relaxes,
and is then sufficiently active. It is said that those keen
foragers, the sea-gulls, have learned to recognise the little
hillock of sand under which it hides in the daytime, and dig
it out for their own consumption.

Pupa apparently undescribed.

The moth hides by day among tangled grass roots under
overhanging edges of sandhills, or among dense herbage on
the sand. If shaken out of its place of refuge it rolls down
quite inert and with its wings clasped, almost rolled, tightly
down, has a curious cylindrical appearance, something like a
piece of the large bark-like sheath of the root of Ammophila.
It flies at late dusk, and soon settles down to feed on the rather
strong-smelling blossoms of the common ragwort, or on the
spikes of the Marram-grass ; and is readily attracted by light,
or by the blossoms of heather, where this grows near the
coast. Its home is the heaped-up waste of sand produced on
every sandy coast by the constant drifting of this loose
material before the wind; and in such localities it may be
found on many. portions of our littoral. Before this special
habitat was discovered it was supposed to be one of our rarest

TRIFIDA. 369

species, and it received the common name of the Portland
Moth, not from the Isle of Portland, where it is very scarce,
but from the circumstance that it formed one of the principal
treasures of the collection of the Duchess of Portland, who
seems to have been the first to rear it in this country.
Although rare at Portland, it is found more freely in suitable
places elsewhere on the Dorset coast, and on the north and
south coast of Devon; also, I believe, on Hayling Island,
Hants, but records appear to be wanting elsewhere in the
extreme south of this country. It is not rare on the coast of
Norfolk and Suffolk and is even rather common on those of
Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Isle of Man. In
Wales it has been taken on the Towyn Sands, Merionethshire,
near Neath, and at Tenby. On the Breck-sands of Norfolk
and Suffolk it seems still to survive, though in extremely
small numbers, but this may not be a survival of an ancient
race, since the species seems to have an occasional habit of
making rather long flights at night. Thus in the neighbour-
hood of King’s Lynn an occasional specimen is found at
heather bloom several miles from the sea; very rarely
examples have been met with near Stowmarket, Suffolk; and
once it has even been taken at light at Cambridge. In
North Wales too a specimen was taken quite recently by
Colonel Partridge, at light, on the hills fully six miles from
the sea. In Scotland the only record in the south-west
appears to be at Ardrossan on the Frith of Clyde, northward
in Sutherlandshire, and on the east it extends as far north
as the Culbin Sands, Morayshire. On the Irish coast more
widely distributed and probably to be found in every exten-
sive waste of sandhills; it is recorded from various parts
of the Dublin coast, Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, Kerry,
Sligo, Donegal, Londonderry, Antrim, and Down. Abroad
it is said to be widely distributed in Central Europe, and to
be found in Livonia and Siberia.

18. A. Saucia, Hiib.—Expanse 1? to 2 inches.. Fore
VOL. III. 2A

370 LERIDORTERA,

wings much elongated, narrow at the base, broader behind ;
reddish-brown or greyish-brown ; hind wings shining pearly
white, with dark brown nervures.

Antenne of the male simple, ciliated, dark brown; palpi
small, strongly tufted, brown; head purplish-brown ; collar
rather raised, pale brown with two cross-bars of purplish-
brown, the lower very slender; shoulder-lappets long and
large, pale brown edged with darker brown; remainder of
the thorax brown dusted with whitish, with a long divided
and tufted crest from the collar to the back of the thorax ;
fascicles grey, long and dense, hiding the base of the
abdomen; the latter is pale brown, covered with long loose
shining grey scales; lateral and anal tufts brown. Fore
wings long, rather narrow at the base; costal margin
straight to near the apex, where it is gently curved; apex
rather suddenly and bluntly rounded, almost angulated ;
hind margin very oblique, slightly rounded ; dorsal margin
nearly straight; colour pale brown or red-brown, thickly
dusted below the subcostal nervure with dark brown and
reddish, so that a broad stripe of the paler ground colour lies
along the costal margin; basal line almost limited to two
black costal dots ; first line double, indistinct, reddish-brown,
broken into rough crescents and placed nearly perpendicu-
larly ; second line only indicated by a faint curved series of
cloudy brown dots; subterminal line pale brown, edged
inwardly with reddish-brown clouds, outwardly by a long
smoky-brown cloud which occupies the hind-marginal space ;
orbicular stigma large, rather ovate, often pale brown partially
margined with red-brown, but also often only indicated by
the red-brown edging; reniform stigma obscure, slenderly
edged with dark brown or red-brown, and usually almost
filled up with smoky-grey or blackish, the lower portion
especially with a blackish cloud; claviform stigma, when
visible, of the ground colour, slenderly edged with a dark
brown line, and divided down the middle by a still more
slendef one; costal margin dotted with black, and beyond

TRIFIDE. 371

the stigmata with yellowish; upon it just before the apex is
a short oblique blackish wedge-shaped spot; extreme hind
margin edged with slender black lunules; cilia shining pale
brown, divided by a darker line. Hind wings broad and
ample, with a rounded but rather sinuous hind margin;
shining whitish with a strong pearly-bluish lustre; nervures
sharply dark brown; hind margin clouded with smoky-
brown; cilia white, shining, divided by a brownish line.
Female similar, stouter, the nervures and shading of the hind
wings of a deeper brown.

Underside glossy leaden-grey, paler toward the dorsal
margin, dusted with blackish beyond the middle; nervures
raised into ridges and edged with ashy-grey; discal cell
fully occupied by long fluffy raised scales; reniform stigma
smoky-black; hind wings pearly white; costal region and
nervures dusted with brown; central streak triangular,
blackish. Body whitish-brown; legs brown, barred with
paler; leg tufts smoky-brown.

The above description applies to the more common form
of the species, which, however, is always and everywhere
variable in the degree of red-brown, umbreous or smoky-
brown dusting or clouding below the subcostal nervure ; or
the whole surface is of one of these shades. But in some
individuals the dark clouding is absent, the fore wings being
of the pale brown ground colour, with all the markings more
distinct, though the stripe along the costal region is usually
paler. In other cases this stripe, with a large portion of
the fore wings, is of a smooth red-brown or purple-red colour-
ing; while in another series of forms the costa is broadly
shaded with smoky-black, softening off to umbreous in the
middle area, and with the orbicular and reniform stigmata
deeper black. These variations seem to occur equally in
both sexes, and are accompanied by every possible phase of
intermediate colouring. Aberrations seem to be rare, but in
the collection of Mr. 8. Stevens is a very pretty and curious
specimen—small, pale drab, with the margins dark.

272 LEPIDOPPERA.

On the wing, very rarely in May and June, far more
frequently in July, August, September, and October.

Larva large and stout, more than two inches long; not
quite cylindrical but very slightly stoutest behind, and taper-
ing a little in front, the head being the smallest segment ;
rounded and of a shining pale grey or pale brown, with a
blackish stripe down each lobe ; general colour of the upper
portion of the body reddish-grey or reddish-brown ; dorsal
line rather paler, narrow, dotted with whitish at the
incisions, passing between a series of short brown or blackish
shaded longitudinal lines, which sometimes are united so as
to form a chain of lozenge-shaped markings; sub-dorsal line
slender, interrupted and undulating, dark brown; spiracles
black, sometimes in a grey ring, or inside the curves of a
clender undulating pair of lateral greyish lines; back portion
of the anal seement ornamented with a large pale yellowish
blotch, in which are two pairs of grey dots; this blotch is
edged in front by a black cross-bar joining black streaks ;
under surface and legs pale grey, the space above the
abdominal prolegs sometimes having three grey dots, which
then are also found in the preceding and following
segments. When younger rather darker in colour, with the
head more yellow and the yellowish patch on the anal seg-
ment more triangular.

June and July and again in September, October, and
November, in two generations; but there is strong reason to
believe that the winter in these islands is fatal to the vast
majority of its later larvae and its pups. On plantain,
clover, dock, grass, spinach, cabbage, rape, and apparently
on almost any low-growing herbaceous plant, even to the
marigolds in the gardens. Mr. W. E. Nicholson states that
the very young larvee feed at all times most ravenously, but
after the second moult they feed mainly at night, hiding
themselves during the day on the underside of the leaves of
their food plants; and that from the time when they are

TRIFIDZ., B73

about half grown till full growth they feed at night only,
and bury themselves during the day under the surface of the
earth. These larvae were the produce of eggs laid by
captured females in September, the eggs hatching in from
ten days to a fortnight; in the protection of a greenhouse
the larve throve and fed up vigorously and rapidly, the
whole course from egg to imago occupying but two months ;
while those larvas which were kept in a cold situation fed
very slowly, and appeared disposed to pass the winter as
small larvee, but succumbed to the climate. The double
broodedness of this species seems to have been first estab-
lished about the year 1845. At the end of October of that
year the late Dr. R. C. R. Jordan obtained eggs the larvee
from which fed on till the third week of January, when severe
frost destroyed their food, and all but two died. The
remaining two produced moths in March and April. A
pupa dug up in April produced the moth on May Ist. In
the year 1865 the late Rev. J. Hellins of Exeter obtained a
large batch of eges, laid by a captured female at the end of
September, and found that, the weather heing warm, they
hatched in three days, and that others obtained by a friend
hatched in five days. The larve fed vigorously at once, but
the winter came too soon upon them and many died. Some
which had been sent to Mr. W. Buckler, and kept in a
ereenhouse, however, fed up and emerged in May. A year
or two later Dr. Hearder obtained a female moth which had
been captured at light on May 25th; it deposited eggs
which hatched in about a fortnight, the larvee feeding up at
the middle of August, and producing moths at the end of
that month. These details are of interest, exemplifying the
struggle constautly made by this species to maintain itself in
a climate unsuited to its constitution.

Pura of ordinary form; red-brown; in the earth.

The moth doubtless hides itself among herbage during
the day; apparently it is scarcely ever found at that time ;

374 LEPIDOPTERA.

at night it flies vigorously, comes occasionally to light, and is
strongly attracted by sugar and ivy-blossom, on either of
which it settles down, and is captured with perfect ease.
Most uncertain in its times of appearance, usually scarce
except perhaps on the extreme South coast, but in certain (or
rather uncertain) years appearing in large numbers in the
autumn and extending its range very widely. The early—
May or June—brood is very rarely taken in this country,
and for this reason I have furnished, above, full evidence of
its existence, but the number of eggs laid by the female is
so large—approaching one thousand in number—and the
larva feeds so vigorously and rapidiy in warm weather that
the produce of a very small number of specimens in the
early summer is sufficient to furnish a respectable emergence
in the autumn. Yet there can be little doubt that our native
produce is reinforced at times by a strong contingent from the
Continent of Europe. It is a swift and powerful insect and
possessed of a migratory instinct, which would naturally bring
it to us when at all crowded in its more congenial localities.
Jn the years 1856—7-8 it suddenly became common in the
Southern counties and very widely distributed, occurring
even in the suburbs of London; after that it was again scarce
for a number of years, but in 1867—9 again appeared in such
profusion as to be found in hundreds at Brighton and Deal,
and to extend into Scotland; and similar fluctuations have
taken place in subsequent years. On the South coast from
Kent to Devon, Cornwall, and the Scilly Isles it may be taken
annually, and when abundant ¢here, 1s apt to be so in Berks,
Somerset, Gloucestershire, Surrey, Oxfordshire, Essex and
elsewhere in the southern counties; far more scarce in
the Cambridgeshire fen district ; found casually in Leicester-
shire, Staffordshire, and Derbyshire; more frequently in the
East coast counties from Suffolk to Yorkshire, and in the
West in Herefordshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire ; indeed,
its spread seems to take place more particularly along the
coast. Apparently very local in Wales, though it has occurred

TRIFID. 3/5

in Carmarthenshire, Glamorganshire, and Pembrokeshire.
In Scotland Mr. Adam Elliot has found it in Roxburghshire ;
and in the West it has extended as far as Troon, Ayrshire ;
in 1867 it was at Perth and Rannoch; and on the Kast coast
it has been found in several localities, extending even to the
Shetland Isles. In Ireland even more generally distributed
—Dublin, Wicklow, Cork, Connemara, Mayo, Westmeath,
Louth, Galway, Armagh, and Derry.

Abroad its range is immense; Central, Southern, and
Western Europe; the Canaries; Madeira, abundant; Northern
Africa—Mr. J. J. Walker says that at Tangier and also at
Gibraltar it seems to be found almost throughout the year—
Asia Minor, Canada, the United States of America, Mexico,
Venezuela, Brazil, and Chili—but in these last under the
name of semifusca. In the United States it is at times so
abundant as to become a serious pest to the farmers. Pro-
fessor Smith in his ‘“ Catalogue of the Noctua of North
America” mentions it as occurring in April and May in
California, in Canada in July and August, in New York and
Ilinois in August and September, and in the latter months
and October in the district of Columbia. Doubtless he
refers to two generations at least.

[A. fennica, Tauscher.—In the year 1850 the late Mr.
H. Doubleday recorded, in the Zoologist, the occurrence of an
example of this species in Derbyshire, but without mention-
ing the name of the captor. 'The insect had become the
property of the late Mr. 'T. H. Allis, of York. Some years
later this gentleman stated in the Hntomologist’s Weekly
Intelligencer that he had no doubt that the specimen was
taken by John Beresford, of Chesterfield, but that the species
had never been properly looked for since. John Beresford
appears to have been a miner. No suspicion seems to
attach to him, and the only reasonable explanation of this
extraordinary occurrence is that of casual migration or
accidental introduction. There is no reason whatever to

376 LEPIDOPTERA.

suppose that the insect has any home in these Islands or that
any other individual of the species has been taken here. It
is an insect of peculiar appearance, having very long narrow
fore wings, black brown, with the dorsal margin whitish,
shaded with reddish, and the orbicular and reniform stigmata
yellow or edged with yellow and placed far apart ; hind wings
pale brown. The female is devoid of the reddish colour
along the dorsal margin ; its ground colour is greyer and
stigmata whitish. Its home appears to be in Western
Siberia, whence it has been obtained in some numbers by the
Rey. N. F. Dobree, and its larva discovered feeding by day
upon Corydalis gigantea and Epilobium. Elsewhere it seems
to be always rare, or at any rate scarce; yet is found in
Finland, Lapland, Northern Russia, Tartary, and widely
distributed in North America. ]

19. A. pyrophila, /ub.; simulans, Stawd. Cat.—
Kxpanse, 1? inch. Fore wings narrow at the base, grey-brown
slightly mottled with darker ; markings obscure, mainly con-
sisting of black dots on the costal margin and on the trans-
verse lines; hind wings grey brown.

Antennee of the male ciliated throughout, the bristles
forming fine and delicate tufts from the base to beyond the
middle ; colour brown. Palpi short, reddish brown ; head
greyish brown, paler at the sides; collar upraised, light
brown behind the head; upper portion, with the remainder
of the thorax, brown dusted with dark grey; at the back of
the thorax is a long flat divided crest having two small
points; fascicles broad, smoky-white ; abdomen rather long,
light brown or grey-brown with a golden gloss, lateral and
anal tufts paler. Fore wings elongated, rather narrow at the
base; costal margin very faintly curved; dorsal margin
straight ; apex and hind margin decidedly rounded, the latter
full and very little oblique; colour pale brown, dusted with
blackish ; basal line indicated by two pairs of blackish
streaks ; first line very obscure, perpendicular, broken into a

TRIFIDE. 377

series of slender blackish curves, faintly duplicated inwardly ;
second line also obscure, oblique, blackish, consisting of a
series of long loops attached to a row of black dots; beyond
is a row of obscure blackish wedge-shaped spots, forming the
inner edge of a barely visible paler subterminal line ; costal
and hind margin dotted with black; orbicular and reniform
stigmata indicated by obscure blackish margins, and the
latter clouded with dark grey ; all the markings very obscure
and minute, producing the effect of a series of faint dotted
lines; cilia pale brown. Hind wings ample, the margin
rounded except below the apical angle, where it is rather
hollowed out; smoky-brown, darkest at the hind margin;
‘nervures darker brown; cilia yellowish, shading off to white,
and intersected by a brown line. Antenne of the female
threadlike; general colour slightly darker, but extremely
similar.

Underside of the fore wings pale ashy-grey, with the
margins yellowish and the whole surface shining with a
golden gloss; beyond the middle is an obscure dark grey
transverse stripe; of hind wings pale grey with a smoky
black central spot, followed by a slender transverse dark grey
stripe; costal region broadly yellowish ; body whitey brown ;
legs brown, barred with yellowish; leg tufts pale greyish-
brown.

Hardly variable in any one locality, but subject to regular
gradations of colouring in accordance with latitude. On the
South coast its colour is brownish-grey, or even pale brown ;
as it occurs further North the colour becomes darker, till in
the North of Scotland the insect is of a unicolorous grey-
black.

On the wing in July and August, or in the extreme North
and West in September.

Larva. Head shining brown; dorsal plate triangular,
brownish-black ; on each side of it a brownish-black mark ;
dorsal line inconspicuous, extremely narrow, light brown with

378 LEPIDOPTERA.

a darker line on each’side, and a double series of brownish-
black, medio-dorsal, V-shaped markings, the tips of the V’s
directed forwards. Subdorsal area light brownish flesh-
colour, with a few very small brownish dots; a series of very
distinct black marks in the second and fifth to twelfth
segments, dividing the lateral white stripe which lies below
the spiracles from the subdorsal area. Hach segment emits
a number of short bristles, and in some specimens the dark
brownish medio-dorsal stripes are decidedly tinged with
green. (W. Reid.) This description is made from well-
grown larvee early in the winter. Mr. Reid goes on to say
that in the spring, after moulting again, the larve have
changed colour and the markings are very much brighter.
Of the young larve he says: ‘“ When newly hatched they
are dark greenish-brown, with the faintest trace of a lighter
line below the spiracles, and a few scattered bristles. They
are extremely sluggish and appear to be constantly sitting
about, holding on to the withered grass with the last three
pairs of claspers, the fore part of the body thrown back and
the head tucked in after the manner of a Sphina larva. They
grew so slowly that it was several weeks before I saw much
difference in them. At last they moulted, and although this
did not improve their size, it made a great difference to their
appearance. Dorsal and subdorsal area brownish ; a lateral
series of wedge-shaped spots from the fifth to the twelfth seg-
ment just above the spiracular line, the apex pointing forward
and only crossing the anterior half of each segment ; below the
spiracles is a broad white line ; posture and habits the same as
before, but they are not so sluggish. After the second moult
they may be said to assume the colouring and markings, in
miniature, of the adult larva. The larva rolls itself into a ring
when annoyed and falls off its food plant, but soon unrolls
and seeks shelter at a great rate.” As this larva is so little
known I have quoted Mr. Reid’s remarks rather fully.

September to May or June, on grasses, dandelion, dock,
knot-grass, groundsel, and other low-growing plants. Feeding
at night, hiding in the daytime at the roots of grass.

TRIFIDE. 379

Pupa undescribed.

The moth hides itself in the daytime at the roots of grass
or under any convenient shelter, and is said to enter houses
where they exist in its favourite localities. The late Mr. G.
Norman captured many specimens at Forres in the North-east
of Scotland as they were trying to escape through the windows
of a house just after dusk. Mr. Reid says that it has a
curious habit, when disturbed at night, of crawling under
loose bark and planks, on palings or outhouses. It comes
readily to sugar and to the blossoms of ragwort, thistle, wood-
sage, heather, tansy, dock, reed, yellow flag, and in gardens
to sweet-william. It is very local, principally frequenting
sea cliffs and hills inland, and is found on the South coast of
England at Portland, Charmouth, and rarely elsewhere in
Dorsetshire. It is difficult to understand how it can be
absent from the sea cliffs of Devon and Cornwall, but I can
find no record of its presence. Inland it has been found on
the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire. Further northward it is
more frequent, being found in Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire,
Yorkshire, Westmoreland and Cumberland, also at the Isle
of Man, and in North Wales in Flintshire and Denbighshire.
Much more widely distributed in Scotland, being found in the
Tweed and Forth districts, in Ayrshire, Morayshire, and
generally in Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire; also in
Argyleshire, and in the Hebrides and Orkneys. In Ireland,
so far as I know, only two specimens have been obtained,
both near Sligo; these are in the collection of Mr. F. J.
Hanbury. Abroad it is very widely distributed over the
Continent of Europe and is found in Siberia.

[A. helvetina, Bdv.—'This Alpine species, of which the
fore wings are long and rather pointed, and of a uniform
olive brown, or lead-brown colour, with brown hind wings,
was recorded as British in the Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine,

380 LEPIDOPTERA.

1872, three (so-called) specimens having been taken in
Derbyshire. By some extraordinary fatality of error, these
specimens were afterwards said to belong to a variety of
Noctua neglecta, Hiib. One of them, now the property of
Dr. P. B. Mason, of Burton-on-Trent, is before me. It is
evidently a curious unicolorous form of Noctua augur, the
shape of its fore wings differing greatly from that in A.
helvetina and in a less degree from JN. neglecta, but agreeing
accurately with WV. avgur. A second specimen is at Burton-
on-Trent in the collection of Mr. G. Baker, and is identical
with this. Dr. Mason fully agrees with me as to the species
to which they actually belong. The third specimen seems to
have disappeared. The true A. helvetina is found in France,
Germany, Switzerland, Piedmont, and the whole Alpine region
of the Continent of Europe; but there is no reason to suppose
that it has ever occurred in these Islands. ]

20. A. Ashworthii, Dd/d.—Expanse 14 inch. Fore
wings rather truncate, pale slate-grey, with dark grey lines
and central shade ; stigmata indistinct ; hind wings pale grey.

Antenne of the male minutely notched toward the base
and finely ciliated throughout; pale grey, browner in front.
Palpi short, with broad oblique tufts, black at the sides, —
hoary-grey in front; head hoary-grey, darker above ; entire
thorax light slate-grey, minutely dusted with darker ; doubly
crested at the back, and the tufts tipped with dark grey ;
fascicles broad, smoky-white; abdomen smoky-white, dusted
with grey ; lateral and anal tufts rather greyer. Fore wings
rather narrow at the base ; costal and dorsal margins slightly
rounded; apex bluntly angulated; hind margin gently
curved and slightly hollowed above the anal angle; colour
-slate-grey with a bluish tint, finely dusted with black ; basal
line abbreviated, doubly curved, deep black; first line nearly
perpendicular, much indented, deep black; second line also
black, more slender, deeply zigzagged throughout and with
black dots at the angles; subterminal line undulating and

TRIFIDA, 183

indented, obscurely paler, strongly edged on the inner side
with dark grey. Hach transverse black line originates from
a large black costal spot, and the dark edging of the sub-
terminal line arises from a large triangular blackish spot
before the apex ; orbicular stigma distinctly ringed with black
and bordered on each side by a rather squared blackish blotch ;
reniform stigma very obscure, edged only at the back with
black ; no claviform stigma; central shade conspicuous, dark
smoky-grey ; cilia crenulated, slate-grey, rather dashed with
darker. Hind wings pale smoky-grey, shading to whitish
toward the base, to darker toward the hind margin and
around the apex; sometimes also with a rather darker central
transverse cloudy stripe; nervures dark grey; cilia white.
Female with threadlike antennz, and sometimes the general
colour rather more smoky, but hardly differing from the male
except in the stouter body.

Underside of the fore wings very pale slate-grey, the middle
area smoky-grey ; beyond the middle are two blackish costal
blotches, from which arise obscure smoky-black transverse
stripes, the second incomplete; hind wings white, dusted with
grey, and with a slender transverse grey stripe beyond the
middle. Body and leg-tufts hoary-grey, the latter more smoky-
grey toward the front ; legs blackish, barred with grey.

An exceedingly pretty species when fresh, and hardly
variable except in the depth of ground-colour and central
shading, but the soft bluish-slate colour fades in time and
becomes of a smoky-grey, or even brownish-grey. My
description has been made from exquisitely fresh and beau-
tiful specimens reared last year by Mr. C. S. Gregson, and
provided for the purpose. A variety is on record entirely
suffused with blackish-grey, and another having a broad
blackish central band. They have not come under my
observation.

On the wing in July and August.

Larva plump, active, rather stoutest behind and tapering

382 LEPIDOPTERA,

a little toward the head, which is of a bright chestnut colour,
rounded, and very glossy ; body uniformly sooty-black, except
two subdorsal rows of deep velvety-black spots, each spot
nearly as long as the segment, rounded in front, squared
behind ; legs pale chestnut; prolegs and under-surface sooty-
black.

The larvee from which this description is taken were for-
warded for the purpose by Mr. C. 8. Gregson of Liverpool.
Probably there is some variation in colour which these
examples do not indicate, since Mr. Buckler’s figures have
the ground-colour in one case dark green, in the other dark
purple. When very young they are green, with the subdorsal
blotches indicated but paler; when half grown bright green,
with the blotches darker, but indistinct, and the head dark-
brown.

September to May, hybernating. Mr. Gregson says that
three to five young larvee may be found together in old webs
left by another species on the flowering spikes of Solidago
virgaurea. Doubtless any suitable protection is made use of.
Throughout the winter on grass, Helianthemum (rock-rose or
sun-cistus), wild thyme, burnet, sallow, heather, golden-rod,
Hieracium, Galium, Campanula rotundifolia, and almost
any low-growing hill plants. In captivity it willingly eats
the blossoms of primrose, and rejoices in sallow-catkins.
Unlike the majority of its allies, it is not exclusively a might
feeder. On the contrary, the local collectors search for it
regularly by day. Mr. F. C. Woodforde writes me this spring:
“Nearly all the larvee are taken in the daytime; it would be
next to impossible to work at night where it is most numerous,
on account of the danger. Of course, it does feed at night,
and I have found it at that time by the aid of a lamp, but I
found more in the daytime. On warm days, when the sun
is not too hot, it comes out and feeds, stretched at full length
on its food plant. chiefly between noon and 1 P.M., and
between 3 and 4 p.m. It is most frequently found on very
steep and bare ground, where wild thyme with cistus and

TRIFIDZ. 383

burnet grow in small isolated patches. It is conspicuous
stretched out upon a shoot, and its markings with the paler
dorsal line look curiously like the leaves upon a spray of
thyme. On cold days searching is almost useless. In
captivity also it eats a great deal in the daytime, though
some keep concealed beneath the soil.” This supports Mr.
Gregson’s statement, made more than twenty years ago, that
he had found the larva in every hour of the day from 5 A.M.
to 2 P.M.

Pura of the usual rounded form, with a minute tubercle
covering the points of the palpi; whole surface very glossy ;
wing and limb cases closely appressed ; abdominal segments
rounded and deeply separated ; anal segment finished off with
a broad flattened black projection, on which are two short
points or spikes; below this the anal structure is visible.
General colour bright red-brown ; wing covers less strongly
coloured and semi-transparent, showing internal structure;
spiracles black; anal points deep black. In a chamber of
earth underground, or under stones or moss on the rocks,

The moth sits in the daytime on limestone rocks, or hides
among loose stones. In appearance it closely resembles the
blue limestone, and it has the sagacity to hide itself in chinks
and crevices, where this resemblance greatly assists in its con-
cealment. In very hot sunshine, however, it becomes excite-
able and may be disturbed. At night it comes forth and sits
on the rocks or on grass stems, and flies vigorously rather
late, coming eagerly to sugar sprinkled upon plants in its
favourite haunts. These are exclusively limestone rocks, and
usually at considerable elevations. The tops of the hills and
portions of mountains throughout North Wales, but especially
in the counties of Denbigh and Flint, are composed of
carboniferous limestone, forming in some of them successive
escarpments and plentiful rock faces and masses of fallen
stone, and here is the home of the present species.—
Llangollen, Penmaenmawr, Snowdon, and doubtless in all

384 LEPIDOPTERA.

similar places in that district. Colonel Partridge has found
it at Dolgelly ; and there is a record of its capture in Anglesea.
Outside this particular district of mountain limestone it does
not seem to have been observed. It was first taken in the
year 1853 at Llangollen, by Mr. Joseph Ashworth, and was
recorded and described in the Zoologist, 1855, by Mr. H.
Doubleday, who named it after its discoverer. He, however,
very judiciously remarked that it is closely allied to A. decora.
In 1862 Dr. Herrich-Schiiffer in the corrse of some remarks,
in the same magazine, upon British insects, compared it in
some respects to a much larger species—4A. candelisequa
(candelarum)—and, presumably for this reason, the sugges-
tion has since been repeatedly made that it might be a local
variety of A. candelisequa, Hiib., a species widely distributed
in central and eastern Europe. For this I can see no grounds.
The two species bear no resemblance to each other; they
differ in size, colour, markings (so far as A. candelisequa can
be said to have markings), and in shape, and are, in fact, not
closely allied. But 4. decora is unquestionably very nearly
related to A. Ashworthii ; and in all probability 4. Simplonia,
an inhabitant of some of the higher portions of the Alps and
Pyrenees, is identical with it, if indeed both are not local
forms of A. decora. If these forms are distinct species our
insect is, to all appearance, exclusively confined to its moun-
tainous haunt in North Wales.

21. A. ravida, Hiib.; obscura, Staud. Cat. Expanse,
to 13 inch. Fore wings broad behind, glossy grey-brown,
with a broadly reddish tinge along the costal region ; mark-
ings very obscure ; hind wings greyish-white.

Antennz of the male threadlike, very faintly ciliated,
reddish-brown. Palpi and head densely tufted with rich purple-
brown scales. Collar similar, thickly scaled, erect ; shoulder
lappets long and loose, purple-brown; back of thorax
browner, more thinly scaled, and with the scales very pros-
trate, except a small divided back crest; fascicles smoky-

TRIFIDE. 385

grey; abdomen glossy pale purplish-brown, much flattened ;
lateral and anal tufts inconspicuous. Fore wings rather
narrow at the base, broad behind, and rather expanded at the
anal angle ; costa rounded; dorsal margin rather hollowed ;
apex and hind margin rounded, the latter hardly oblique;
colour light umbreous dusted with darker, with the costal
region, so far as the median nervure, suffused with purplish-
red, and a gloss of purplish over the whole surface; basal
line blackish, curved, very slender; outside it is a short, deep
black, longitudinal streak lying below the median nervure ;
first line indistinct, nearly perpendicular, composed of de-
tached blackish curves; second line obscure, not very oblique,
mainly composed of blackish crescents, from the points of
which blackish streaks run along the nervures; subterminal
line undulating, faintly yellowish; orbicular and reniform
stigmata dull yellowish, edged with black ; claviform stigma
scarcely indicated ; on the costal margin are two pairs of
black spots, followed by three or four yellowish dots; cilia
purplish-brown. Hind wings whitish, with brown nervures,
clouded at the base and hind margin with greyish-brown,
and wholly suffused with a golden gloss ; cilia white. Female
similar, or else more suffused with reddish, purplish, or smoky-
brown, and with the markings even more obscured ; hind
wings slightly darker.

Underside of the fore wings shining smoky-white, broadly
tinged with reddish-grey along the costa and hind margin ;
reniform stigma indicated by a cloudy blackish spot; beyond
it is a distinct, transverse, curved, smoky-black stripe. Hind
wings white, with the costal region broadly dusted with
reddish ; central spot grey, obscure; beyond it is a smoky-
black transverse stripe, most distinct toward the costa, and
fading out in the white area.

There is some variation in the ground colour, the red costal
colouring in some specimens suffusing the greater portion of
the fore wings, or in others becoming hardly perceptible,
leaving the whole surface dark brown, or grey-brown, or even

VOL. III. 2B

386 LEPIDOPTERA.

blackish-brown. In some specimens in each shade of colour-
ing there is a darkening of the space between the orbicular
and reniform stigmata. There is nothing clearly defined in
these variations ; all melt imperceptibly into each other. In
Mr. F. J. Hanbury’s collection is a very curious specimen,
remarkably resembling one of the forms of A. nigricans, and
hardly larger than that species.

On the wing during the latter half of July and in
August.

Larva cylindrical, almost uniform in thickness, but slightly
tapering toward the head, which is grey, mottled and streaked
on the lobes and face with dusky brown; on the second
segment is a dull brown plate, with slight indications of
dorsal and subdorsal faint lines through it. General colour
yellowish-brown, with a slender, slightly paler dorsal line,
which passes through a dusky V-like streak at the end of
each segment after the fourth. At the commencement of
the fourth segment, on each side and close to the division, is
a subdorsal ochreous-yellow spot, which is repeated on the
fifth to the eleventh segments, and on them has an almost
corfluent, yellow, wavy, curved streak extending along two-
thirds of the segment, the curves diminishing toward the
eleventh seoment; on the twelfth the lines are straight and
slightly converging, and are margined above with dusky-
brown wedge-shaped streaks, which point forward; on the
previous segments the yellow curved streaks are edged more
faintly with dusky brown. Sides and under surface, with the
lees, brownish-grey; spiracles minute, dirty white, in a
dusky blotch from which an oblique dusky streak points
forward; beneath is a pale grey spiracular line. Anal seg-
ment plain dingy brown.

Another variety has the dorsal region ochreous-brown, but
behind the fourth segment the paler dorsal line is only
visible at the divisions; the Y-like streaks are longer and
darker; the yellow spots are separated from the yellow

TRIFIDE. | 387

streaks by a broad dark brown edging to the latter, ex-
tending to its full length, and on the twelfth segment to
the end thereof, the yellow streaks being, on the fifth to
the twelfth, broad and straight, but curved and unmargined
on the third and fourth.

A third variety is dingy ochreous-brown on the back, with
the dorsal line as in the last; the ochreous spot and streak,
commencing on the fifth segment, become confluent on the
eighth and three following, while on the twelfth only the
streak is visible; each of the yellow curved streaks is edged
above with a thin black streak extending two-thirds down
each segment, the spaces on the middle of the back between
the streaks being filled up with dark brown and containing
two minute dusky spots edged with paler. The curved
yellow streaks are slightly indicated on the second, third,
and fourth segments, and the yellow spot also on the latter.
(Condensed from Mr. Buckler’s descriptions.)

September to May, on dandelion, dock, and other low-
growing plants. Feeding at night, and hiding by day in
the earth at the roots of plants, chiefly at those of dandelion
and thistle. From this preference it has been supposed to
feed on the roots, but of this I can find no evidence. Mr.
Buckler found that his larvee feed freely on succulent leaves
of dandelion (Leontodon taraxacum).

Pupa apparently undescribed. In a loose cocoon of earth
and a little silk, under the surface of the ground.

The moth hides in the daytime in old thatch or among
herbage on the ground. It flies at dusk and comes readily
to sugar, at which it settles down quietly and is captured
without difficulty. Of very uncertain occurrence, and some-
times hardly observed for years. From 1868 to 1872 it was
common in some of its haunts; by 1891 it had come to be
looked upon as a very rare insect; it then reappeared, and
for the last four years has, in some districts, been common.
Found throughout the Southern Counties, and in Kent and

388 "LEPIDOPTERA.

Wilts sometimes commonly, as also in the Reading district of
Berkshire; rare in Devon and apparently not noticed in
Jornwall. In Essex abundant in 1894, and found also in
Suffolk and Norfolk; generally distributed over the fen and
chalk districts of Cambridgeshire and the adjoining counties,
and there also plentiful in its favoured seasons, when indeed
it has been known to occur in the suburbs of London;
taken occasionally on the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, in
Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, and rarely in
Lancashire and Yorkshire; more frequently in Lincolnshire
and Durham. In Scotland it is very rare. Mr. Cameron
has recorded it in Ayrshire, and Dr. White in the Clyde,
Solway, and Forth districts. The only record in Ireland
seems to have been doubtful and has not been confirmed.

Abroad its range is exceedingly wide; Central Hurope
and all the temperate portions of the northern part of the
Continent, Northern Spain, Northern Italy, Southern Russia,
Siberia, Tartary, India, China, Japan, North Africa, Canada,
and even Greenland. 3

22. A. lucernea, ZL.
rather short, narrow at base, broad behind; smoky slate-grey,
dusted with whitish; with broad darker transverse clouds;

Expansel} to 1} inch. Fore wings

hind wings dark grey with white cilia,

ANTENN& of the male strongly ciliated, the basal half with
small tufts of fine bristles, which thin out beyond the middle ;
dark brown. Palpi short with the apical joint thickly tufted,
smoky-grey; head grey-brown or dark grey; collar rather
raised, and, with the rest of the thorax, dusky grey, loosely
scaled, and with a very faint indication of a crest at the
back; fascicles pale grey; abdomen dark grey with a
purplish gloss; lateral and anal tufts small, slate-grey.
Fore wings rather short and truncate, narrow at the base;
costal and dorsal margins nearly straight; apex bluntly
angulated; hind margin below it straight and nearly
perpendicular, but rounded off at the anal angle; smoky-

TRIFIDZ. 389

grey with a gloss of slate-grey, and appearing of a thick
texture; markings very obscure, but when visible a faint,
irregular, darker grey basal line, edged with paler; first
line perpendicular, much indented, dark grey, obscurely
edged inside with pale clouds; second line obscurely dark
grey, indented and curved but not very oblique, faintly
edged outside with paler clouds; orbicular and reniform
stigmata merely indicated by obscure pale clouds; between
_ them a darker grey transverse central shade; subterminal
line, when visible, merely a broken irregular edge of darker
clouding; cilia smoky-grey. Hind wings rather short, dull
brownish-grey, darkest, and appearing smoky, toward the
hind margin; central lunule faintly blackish; cilia snowy
white. Female with threadlike, ciliated antenne; in general
colour hardly differing from the male, except that often
there is a smoky clouding over the hinder area of the fore
wings.

Underside much paler than the upper; margins of the
fore wings yellowish-white or whitish, remainder grey-brown,
shining; hind wings ashy-white with a broad dark grey
hind-marginal band, or with the entire surface grey-brown,
except the costal region. Body and leg tufts ashy-white;
legs dark grey barred with yellowish-white.

Variation in this species appears to be mainly local or
climatal, and exists principally in the intensity of the
colour. On the south coast of Hngland, and especially at:
Portland, the general tint is pale smoky-grey, much darker
toward the hind margin, and with the markings moderately
distinct; inland mountainous districts, especially in North
Wales, produce a still paler form; coast districts in the
West and North a decidedly darker; and in the far West,
as in Kerry, some specimens are actually slate-black, without
more than the faintest trace of markings. The Isle of
Wight produces deep slate-coloured specimens, darker than
those from the Isle of Man, which are brown-grey. Shetland
specimens are large and dark, even to glossy blue-black.

390 LEPIDOPTERA.

On the wing in July and August, and in its northern and
western range, in September.

Larva stout, each segment thickened and rather wrinkled
at the sides ; head small, shining black-brown, rather lighter
brown at the sides; general colour dusky olive-green, mottled
all over with small black streaks and dapplings ; each seg-
ment of the body having a faintly indicated pale olive-green
spot on each subdorsal region, below which, on each side, is °
an oblique.shading of blackish-green ; legs pale brown tipped
with darker; prolegs and under surface pale olive-green.
(From larvee sent for description by Mr. C. 8. Gregson.)
Mr. Logan’s description (1846) from larvee found near Hdin-
burgh indicates some variation: “‘ The general colour greenish
or greyish-black, suffused in some individuals with a faint
purplish bloom ; along the back are two rows of whitish or
yellowish spots, each spot bounded anteriorly by a darker
shade of black. ‘These spots become indistinct toward the
head, and disappear entirely on the third segment; they are
much more fully developed in some individuals than in others ;
the general colour is also variable.” One of Mr. Buckler’s
figures is of a dark purple-grey, and has behind each pale
subdorsal spot a black wedge-shaped streak ; the other is more
as is above described.

August to May on Campanula rotundifolia, Sedum aere,
saxifrage, cowslip, chickweed, and various grasses, especially
Festuca ovina. Usually found in stony or rocky places, and
fond of reposing at night, and sometimes in the sunshine, on
the rocks, especially where these are grey with lichen and
afford protection from similarity.of colour. Mr. F. C. Wood-
forde tells me that, of a considerable number found by himself
and Mr, EH. W. H. Blagg, not one was upon the plants, all
were on the smooth faces of perpendicular rocks, at night,
exactly as though feeding on the microscopic lichens. ‘They,
however, showed no disposition to devour lichen when in
confinement, and this exposure seems to be in some degree
preparatory to spinning up.

TRIFIDZ:. 391

Pura exceedingly smooth and shining, limb-cases hardly
perceptibly raised, but the wing-covers thickened and very
perceptibly fuller than the rest of the body, also so trans-
parent that the segments of the internal portions of the
segmental rings are visible through them; palpi-covers pro-
jecting in front in a bent down knob. Colour bright chest-
nut, segments of the abdomen rather redder; divisions well
marked, dark brown; anal segment rather swollen, fully
rounded, terminating in a blunt point from which arise two
slender parallel spikes. In a brittle cocoon of earth at the
surface of the ground, or spun up in moss among stones or in
chinks of rock.

The moth hides by day among rough stones, in crevices of
rocks, and under any convenient shelter in its savage haunts ;
but the male is readily induced, by hot sunshine, to fly
vigorously in the middle of the day, over rocks, rough shingle,
or the débris of mines; and to feast at flowers. At dusk
both sexes fly wildly and twist and wind about, among stones,
in such a manner as to render their capture diflicult enough.
This is, however, easily effected at sugar, to which both sexes
come freely, as well as to blossoms of wood sage, ragwort,
and heather. It is also strongly attracted by light. Where
the ground is rocky, inland hills and mountains are frequented
by it equally with the coast. It has been taken in Kent
near Deal and Folkestone, though nct commonly ; sometimes
plentifully at the Isle of Wight and at Portland ; more rarely
at Swanage in Dorset, Plymouth and Torquay in Devon, and
Whitsand Bay, Cornwall; but there is no reason to suppose
it absent from any rocky portion of that coast. In Glouces-
tershire it is said to be rare, as also in Lancashire and York-
shire, though in 1895 it became so common in the hilly parts
of the last-named county as to stray into Mr. Porritt’s garden,
a few miles out of Huddersfield. In Salop it is found com-
monly on some rough hills near Church Stretton; and in
Westmoreland in similar localities near Keswick. Doubtless
if looked for it will be found in suitable places all over the

392 LEPIDOPTERA.

Lake District. In Wales also this certainly appears to be
the case, since it is plentiful on the rocky hills and mountains
of the Snowdon district, and around Llangollen, also on the
South coast near Swansea, and in Pembrokeshire. In Scotland
very generally distributed ; fifty years ago it was plentiful on
Arthur’s Seat close to Edinburgh, and thirty years ago was
still found at Salisbury Crags. It is said to be scarce in
the Rannoch district of Perthshire and at Moncrieffe Hill,
yet plentiful at Dunkeld ; also found in Stirlingshire, Clydes-
dale, Kincardineshire, and probably in all suitable places from
the Tweed and Solway to Moray ; certainly in the Hebrides
and at Unst, Shetland. Also widely distributed in Ireland,
but mainly upon the coast—Howth near Dublin, Waterford,
Cork, Kerry, Galway, Sligo, Londonderry, Antrim, and Down. .
Abroad it is an inhabitant of the higher Alps and Pyrenees,
Sweden, and Finland.

END OF VOL. IIl.

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.

Gastropacha ilicifolia (Page 49).—A single male
specimen was captured in the spring of the present year
(1896) on Cannock Chase by Dr. R. Freer. The species is
not, therefore, yet extinct in this country.

Cerura vinula (Page 97).—With reference to the pup
found spun-up on Tamarix, it has since been discovered by
Colonel Partridge that a stump of poplar, still producing
living shoots, exists among the tamarisk bushes. Here,
doubtless, the larvze in question had found their subsistence,
and tamarisk must not be admitted as a probable food-plant.

Petasia cassinea (Page 157).—I have now seen a fine
male of this species which was taken by the Rev. W. W.
Flemyng in the County Waterford, Ireland, and have been
informed of the capture of others. Mr. Kane has taken it
in Westmeath.

Agrotis exclamationis (Page 309).—An extraordinary
variety taken at Ashford, Kent, by Mr. W. R. Jeffrey, has
just been forwarded by him. Its fore wings are of a very
pale yellowish-brown, almost devoid of markings, except the
first and second transverse lines which are black, the latter
most beautifully disposed in crescents throughout. The only
indications of the usually conspicuous stigmata are in very
faint clouds of rusty brown.

| ; ee Be re
| Fortine tuk Li vilyetaie |
; : ny i pi
4 | f nie -

ey alate

= col ee a os

i ‘ ‘ 3 : ; Ton)

Acronycta
aceris

alni
auricoma .
(cuspis)
euphorbize
leporina
ligustri
megacephala
menyanthidis
psi

rumicis
strigosa
tridens
Agrotis
agathina .
aquilina
Ashworthii
cinerea
corticea
(crassa)
cursoria

exclamationis .

(fennica) .
(helvetina)
lucernea
lunigera
nigricans .
obelisca
porphyrea
preecox
puta.
pyrophila .
ravida
ripe .
saucia
segetum
(spinifera)
suffusa

PAGE
219
229
236
257
253
261
224
270
233
253
250
265
241
245
277
357
347
380
208
293
287
324
306
375
379
388
313
331
353
362
365
301
376
384
319
369
288
318
283

INDEX.

(subgothica)
tritici
valligera .
Arsilonche .
venosa
Asphalia
diluta
flavicornis
ridens
Cerura
bicuspis
bifida
furcula
vinula
Cilix
spinula
Clisiocampa
castrensis.
neustria
Clostera
anachoreta
curtula
reclusa
Cymatophora
duplaris
fluctuosa .
ocularis
or:
Diloba .

ceeruleocephala

Diphthera
Orion
Drepana
falcataria .
hamula
sicula :
unguicula
Drymonia .
chaonia ,

dodonza .
Endromis
versicolora
Eriogaster
lanestris .
(Eutricha)
(pini)
Gastropacha
ilicifolia
quercifolia
Gluphisia
crenata
Gonophora .
derasa
Lasiocampa
querctis
rubi .
trifolii
Lophopteryx
camelina .
carmelita .
cucullina .
Notodonta
bicolora
dictzea
dictzoides
dromedarius
trepida
tritophus .
torva
ZICZac
Odonestis
potatoria .
Petasia
cassinea
nubeculosa
Platypteryx .
lacertinaria
Peecilocampa

°

399

populi

Pterostoma .

palpina
Ptilophora
plumigera

INDEX.

PAGE
2
145

Pygiera
bucephala
145 | Saturnia
149} cCarpini
149 'Stauropus

|

PAGE
161
161

57

fagi .
Thyatira
batis

57 | Trichiura

98

crategi

Printed by BALLANTYNE, Hanson & Co,
London and £dinburgh.

PAGE
99
189
190

Gn Ut

PLATE LXXXVILI.

Fig. 1. Pcecilocampa populi, male.
la. 53 3, female.
1d. a larva.

2. 'Trichiura crategi, male.

2a. . 3 female.
20. ae Hs 5. var.
2c. Be - larva.

3. Hriogaster lanestris, male.
3a. = y female.
30. e 3 male, var.

3C. i ‘ larva.

PLATE, 87

R. Morgan del, et lith.

Vincent Brooks Day & Son Imp

L.Reeve & C° London

PLATE LXXXVIII.

Fic. 1. Clisiocampa neustria, male.

la. as % female.

LO: a 3 male, var.
le. y

ld. fs

le. 5 ‘5 female, var.
Lye e : 5 -

lg. 3 Rs larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

PLATE 88.

R Morgan del et lith Vincent Brooks,Day & Son inp

L Reeve & C® London

PLATE LXXXIX.

Fic. 1. Clisiocampa castrensis, male.

ia. a4 Si female.

10. e. % male, var., Mr. S. Webb.
ie? ' *s , -

ld. x : :

te. +B) ” ’ ”

If. ”? ” ’ ’

lige Ep Rs female, var.

Wie ss a % s

1. ¥ - larva.

PLATE 3)

thy

RMorgan del, et ith, Viricént Brooks Day & Son imp

LReeve & C2 London

PLATE XC,

male var., Lancashire.
» 9» Kent, Mr. S. Webb.
» Lancashire.
female, var., Lancashire.

»P) 2) 29

Fic. 1. Lasiocampa trifolii, male.
la. is female.
1b. 3
He: sh 3
ld. ; :
le. ,
ie ; 53

larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

PLATE 90.

RMorgan del et. lth Vincent Brooks Day & Son Imp

L, Reeve & C° London

Bice i

la.
lo.
le;
id.

le.
If.

PLATE XCI,

Lasiocampa quercts, male, South of England.

female, 7

male, var.

var. Pembroke.

Yorkshire, Mr.
G. T. Porritt.

Dr. Mason.

99.

9) 29

39 bi)

PLATE 91

R.Morgan del, et hth. Vincent Brooks,Day & San Imp

LReeve & C° London

ea

Fig. 1.

PLATE XCIL,

Lasiocampa quercts, var. callune, male.

9)

a)

be)

+3

by)

99

be)

9)

9)

female.
male.

» Dr. Mason.
female.

9)

young larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

RMorgan del, et lith.

L. Reeve & C° London

Vin

ent Brooks,Day & Son Imp

wat
rm
.

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x4

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la.
Lb.

PLATE XCIII

Lasiocampa rubi, male.

female.
male, var.
s» 9 MS. J. Capper:
female, var., North of Ireland.
a » North of England.
larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

young larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

PATE 33

R Morgan delet hth

Vincent Brooks,Day & SonImp

LL Reeve & C® London

Bre. ts

PEATE, XCiv:

Odonestis potatoria, male.

33

39

female.

male var., Cambridgeshire.

» 9 Pembrokeshire.
» Mr. 8S. Webb.
female var., Ee

larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

PAs

R.Morgan, del, et Jith

L Reeve & C?Loandon

Vincent Brooks,Day & Son imp

we

f ij 7
nN ‘s ee Ge

ae PE
tare Aa

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re ea

PLATE XCV.

Fig. 1. Gastropacha quercifolia, male.
la. _ a female.
lo. Es “s ar Val.

at rest, Mr. 8S. Webb.
larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

lng
ast

yet

RMorgan del, et lth

L. Reeve & C2 London

Vincent Brooks, Day & Son Imp

PLATE XCVI.

lig. 1. Gastropacha ilicifolia, male, Mr. 8S. Webb.

la. 5 <5 female ,, ss

10. “ _ larva, Mr W. Buckler.
2. Endromis versicolora, male.

2a. Be Bf female

2h male, var.

2e. + ~ larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

PLATE

R Morgan del, et ith.

L.Reeve & C° London.

Vincent Brooks Day & Son Imp

96.

PEATE XCVil.

Fic. 1. Saturnia carpini, male.

ta. a
1b.

le. =
ld. %
le 5

female.
male, South of England.
», Norfolk Fens.
female, var., Mr. RK. Newstead.
larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

cocoon.

PLATE OF

R Morgan del, et ith

L.Reeve & C° Londo:

rot, «i
i" od ed

eae 4.%,) 4.
Ti =

‘ ; : Pile
A Pot Oe eta pane whederat
ER MaMa) debt
CAPRI SOLS EM apres?

PLATE XCVIILI.

Fic. 1. Saturnia carpini, male, var., Mr. 8. J. Capper.

la. Ae a ke 55: Mr S Webb:

1d. 2; » gynandrous, var., Dr. Mason.

2. Drepana falcataria, male.

2a S ss female.

20. - Ech

2c. uM if male > Mrs W.-H B
Fletcher (Sutherlandshire).

2d. = is female var., Mr. W. H. B.

Fletcher (Sutherlandshire).
Qe. 43 uf larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

PIPATE: (OSs

R Morgan del, et kth. Vincent Brooks, Day & Son imp.

L Reeve & C2 London

: reo F Wey: yas
e ‘ ce ) ‘i \ 7 '
a 4 ay) vis A 1) oe ee
i i,t oe hh ther n
w r , 4 a y a [ on és
; - alae ; Ont) 3 Al i
7 x
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4 i : ve i
a aM *
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i
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re i ‘
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ora
hs
i
'
:
Fr
. - Ps
* =
‘
A -
a
’
'
-
(
'
1
{
va

PLATE XCIX.

Fig. 1. Drepana sicula, male.

la. < » female,

10. & » larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

Up . hamula, male.

2a. es female.

20. A Me male, 2nd brood.

Je. se is larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.
a is unguicula, male.

30. as “ female.

350. ss * male, var.

5e. 5 ss larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

PLATE 22.

R Morgan del,etlith. Vincent Brooks,Day &Son Imp

L. Reeve & C° London.

_ a

=

Kabel is rotEtelta oI;

7 sdedturhl : ‘v

{i=

OG pter
eee AM orrel

PLATE C,

Fic. 1. Platypteryx lacertinaria, male.

la. a Ps female

1b. 3 = 5 war. Mir Whe B:
Fletcher.

As - a larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

2. (Cilix spinula, male.

Da as - female.

Di Ak Fe male, var.

26. 45 * larva, Mr. W. Buckler.
3. Cerura bicuspis, male, Mr, S. Webb.
3a. - _ female, .
3D, a Fe male, var. ,,

ae. - larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

Morgan del, et ith.

L Reeve & C2 London

PLATE 106

Vincent Brooks Day & Son Imp

f=

=m,

La PS 7
i i ae

’
in

; aa
‘Ae oe
Da

‘
wi

» /

valiant: BP ail

yoink. 9h) h

PLATE CI.

Fic. 1. Cerura bicuspis, var., Mr. A. Robinson.

De » furcula, male.

2a. - , female.

2b. ‘A , Male, var.

2e. i ., female, var.

2d. a5 » larva, Mr. W. Buckler.
3. bifida, male.

3. ie ,, female.

3b. * ,, larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

PLATE TOM

R.Morgan del, ethith.

Vincent Brooks Day & Son imp

L Reeve & C° London

PLATE CII.

Fie. 1. Cerura vinula, male.

la. = i female.

1d. af - male, var.

le. _ 7" female, var.

ld. a a 2: , Mr. 8S. Stevens.
ke: < m at rest.

ve - » larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

Q
2

PLATE 102
on imp

Vincent Brooks Day&S

R Morgan del, et ith.

I, Reeve & C° London

Fig. 1.

la.
1d.

lke

ld.

le.

If.
ly.

PLATE CIIL

Stauropus fagi, male.

female.
male, var., Mr. W. Holland.

female.

at rest, 53 55

larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

” ” »” ”

R.Morgan del, et lith

Vincent Brooks, Day &Son Imp

L Reeve & C° London.

yal Tah viiw « Yai
7

: a Tobe
——

re}
i aad

PEATE CIV.

Fie. |. Notodonta dicteea, male.

la. Fe , female.

1b. a ,, var., Scotland, Mr. J. Ross.

le 4 ,, var., Cannock, Dr. Freer.

ta: ‘ zt larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

le. 5 ye ae aval:

2: os dictzeoides, male.

Qa. a Pe female.

2b. oN me af var., Sherwood, Mr.
S. Stevens.

2c. i a male, var., Cannock, Dr.

Freer.

2d. is 3 larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

RMorgan del, et ith

Vincent Brooks,Day & Son Imp

LReeve & C° London.

my lene

4) V0. PTA ET

7
:

ara Mite gin a hi baton as art

NUT? ————

Se dally vil ti

ys yehe tar!

sayy a <vie vA) OLe

ee Wa wh |, “a

i
7 9

Haye al i) vehi AV ist

PrGgeele

la.

10.

le.

ld.

le.

If.
lg.

PLATE CV.

Notodonta ziczac, male

female.
male, var.
female, var.

9) 99

male, var. Mr. 8. Webb.

7 » Mr. 8. Stevens.

larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

PLAGE 1s

7 if

R Morgan dsl,et hth

Vincent Brooks, Day & Son lay

L, Reeve & C°Lendon

WIV) WTA TS

> ante SAT olard™ ny dirFal & Stn
nite!

a W alr vial

s+

Sli alelipors
| afar’
aptas “Wy. PM soya’
— :

PLATE CVI.

Fic. 1. Notodonta tritophus, male, Dr. Mason.

la. ss * female, ys

1d. * at larva, Mr. W. Buckler.
2. 35 trepida, male.

2a. - “i female.

20. pH ¥ larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

PLATE 1067

24

aR Morgan del, et ith.

Vincent Brooks Day &SonImp

L. Reeve C®° London.

yay
a, ;
NVI is

®
seri F

rar viii
ay

» 3
"rise (60 '@

-
hiriai

PLATE CVAL

Fig. 1. Notodonta torva, male.

la. . ,, female, Mr. F. Norgate.

2. e dromedarius, male.

2a. Y es female,

20. si i 3 var.

2c. ¥ - ‘ ,, perfusca.
2d. 95 x4 » »

2e. s “s larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

PLATE. 107.

Morgan del, et lith

Vincent Brooks Day & San Imp

L Reeve & C° London,

S *,. Ld
pat
— > ‘: ul
4 P Et

WT) WIKIT

a tee oO .oulntd_ anbhotots ee
omrlioall alt fon! - i mi
ils Ai ga AY
a ee ME ae : | “aie
synod
than lt aul

Le
UE) ee tL

PLATE CVIII.

Fie. 1. Notodonta bicolora, Dr. Mason.

la. is fs larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

2. Drymonia chaonia, male.

2a. be female.

20. A a wf | Varo Mies Wee is
Fletcher.

2c. “ a < ,, Dr. Mason.

2d. - 2 x

2e. 55 . ITs) ae

2f. . . . s iB .

29. . ‘ larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

D

Sy

Morgan. del, et hth

Seo gt@@as ce cenaeen
et et ey
. Soeetausahatees pace ee

L Reeve & C2? London.

mcent Brooks,Day & Son Imp

PLATE CIX.

Fic. 1. Drymonia dodonzea, male.

la. a = female.

10. Fe ‘3 male, var., Mr. Sydney Webb.
le. 2 = » >» Mr. S. Stevens.
ld. a . female, Dr. P. B. Mason.

le. x An - A -

We . Pe ‘ 35 3

ly. n . larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

2. Lophopteryx carmelita, male.

2a. 3 ua female.

2b. a es larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

R Morgan del, etlith

LReeve & C° London

Vancent Brooks

aeeti |

total

aii ‘

cman lipid .t

Lan? i Hit]

Aled i}

Fre. 1.

la:

10.

le:

ld.

PIA. Cxe

Lophopteryx camelina, male.

29

s female.
male, South Wales.
5 scotland.
Dartmoor, Devon,
Major Still.

female, Scotland.

”° 9

male, var., Mr. Sydney
Webb.
larva, Mr. A. Sich.
cucullina, male.
female.

larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

PLATE 110.

od

R Morgan del, et lth Vincent Brooks, Day & Son imp.

L.Reeve & C2 London

"

=.

aa
‘)
h
a
7
e

Sf oit!

BiG.

la.

PLATE CXI.

Pterostoma palpina, male.

29 39

OP) 29

39 9

female.
male, var., Mr. 8. Stevens.
larva, Mr. A. Sich.

Ptilophora plumigera, male.

3, ae)

sty, =)5)

2) 29

female.

male, var.

, Dr. P. B. Mason.
female, var. # if
larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

+)

PLATE WY.

x

i)
Q

S)

is7)

R Morgan delet lith. Vincent Brooks ,Day & Son Imp

L. Reeve & C° London

eorntt ol Yess)

ie

. Benn

oil oe

oH
Son as
- S

*

PLATE CXII.

Fic. 1. Gluphisia crenata, male, Rev. J. Greene.
la. - ss female.
1b. Be es larva.

2. Petasia cassinea, male.

oe ee m female.

20) a larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.
De i" nubeculosa, male.

3M. Bs 2 female.

DO: 45 “ larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

RMorgan del,et lth

Reeve &

5° London

PLATE CXIII.

Fie. 1. Pygzera bucephala, male.

la. .. a female.

10. es A male, var., Yorkshire.

le. - < female, var., Cheshire.

ld. * x R » Mr. 8S. Webb.
le. * - at rest.

is ie * larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

ly. 3 z pupa destroyed by Cordiceps

militaris, Mr. E. W. Lifton.

PLATE JS.

R. Morgan. del,et lth

Vincent Brooks,Day & Son Imp

TT a 7 XO,
L.Reeve & ondon.

RiGad

las

1d.
le.

ld.

PLATE CXIV.

Clostera curtula, male, Spring form.

33

39

3)

3°

», summer form.
female, ,, x
>» Autumn form, Mires:
Webb.
» var., Mr. S. Webb.

larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

anachoreta, male.

be)

female.

male, var., Rev. E. N. Bloom-
field.

female. ro i 43

larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

PLATE dia

R Morgan del, et hth Vineent Brooks,|)ay& Sen Imp

L. Reeve &C? London

a a, Cling!

eee i
er

PLATE CXV.

Fic. 1. Clostera reclusa, male.

la. = fe female.

1d. a3 C3 male, var.

tig . f female, var.

hee re a at rest, tail curled up.
le. Bs : larva, Mr. A. Sich.

2. Diloba ceeruleocephala, male.

21; s female.

var., Dr. R. Freer.

» Mr.S8. Stevens.
Dire acs ae larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

PLATE Ils:

R.Morgan del, et lith. Vincent Brooks,Day & Son Imp.

L. Reeve & C? London

PLATE CXVI

Fic. 1. Gonophora derasa, male.
la. =. female.

larva.

=
Ss

Thyatira batis, male.
female.
. var., North of Ireland.
- » larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

Cymatophora duplaris, male.

oS &
) .

SS
.

al. Ms " female.

wWwwwioihmrm ww bw

b. ' var., Scotland.
C. ; var., Cannock Chase.
3d. larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

PLATE 116,

R. Morgan del, et. hth Vincent Brooks Day & Son I

= Y¥ & Oonimp

L, Reeve & C2 London

ler

oe TAT an “| Miz 7 ? i “" P Ay j
ee, oe
‘

“, - uf
) 2
ee
' .
' h,
‘
‘
:
* 4
’
an
>
+
°
7 ro?
i >» a
. =
i. 7
’
t
.

PLATE CXVIl

Fic. 1. Cymatophora fluctuosa, male.

la. ie s female.

1d. eS - larva, Mr. W. Buckler.
2. is or, South of England.

2a. - ,, scotland.

Dh VE . var. Dr. P. B: Mason:

2c. - ,, larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

3. 0 ocularis, male.

3M. 7 is female.

30. - a larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

4, Hybrid between C. or and C. ocularis; reared by
Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher.

R Morgan del, et. Iith.

L Reeve & C° London

Vincent Brooks Day

& Son Imp

PLATE CXVIII.

Fic. 1. Asphalia diluta, male.

la. 4 ., female.

1d. . , var. Yorks, Mr. 8. J. Capper.

he: a ss fe ae Pe ia

ale - .. larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

2: flavicornis, South of England.

2a. Ms bs Yorkshire, Dr. H. H. Corbett.
2b. 3 3 Cannock Chase, Dr. R. Freer.
2c. = Me 2 7 ” -
2d. as . re Scotland, Mr. 8. J. Capper.
2e. he i larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

PLATE, ate

RMorgan del, et lith

T cS) x Q 10 7 Ant
. Reeve & C® London

*y

ity a se pS

= é
oe? Vike : nf oy¥

qoindee’ _ bad 7 ti

PEATE CXiX:

Fic. 1. Asphalia ridens.

te. s es var.

1d. Ls :

le. 7 ; 5s

ld. ‘8 a

le. 96 . 3 Mir. S.J. Capper:
ive a ,» larva, Mr. A. Sich.

Diphthera Orion.

var. Dr. T. A. Chapman.
i3 2 » Mr.8. J. Capper.
larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

29 29

ROP ROO ho,
os +

or)
.

+e)

aNaSany a i. _ ee
R Morgan del, et lith Vincent Brooks Day & Son Lun

i Ti S — py yo pay a]
ak Reev & C2 London

yee its ay hat mA She

ee) TRO ee Rly!
'

—

Hie. wls

la.
10.

lie:

PLATE CXX.

Acronycta leporina.

*s var. bradyporina.
- intermediate, var.
99 %» Ys
- larva.
aceris.
» var. infuscata, Dr. Mason.
» larva.
33 » colled.
megacephala.
‘5 var,
of larva.

PLATE 120

R.Morgan dei et hth. Vincent Brooks, Day & Sonimp.

LReeve & C° London

Fig. 1.
la.
1b.
le.

1d.

»

_

2a.

PLATE CXXTI,

Acronycta alni, male.

9

,». female.
» _ var., Dr. P. B. Mason.
., larva, Mr. W. Buckler.
.. young larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.
strigosa.
a larva.

menyanthedis, male.

S female.
‘ var., Mr. 8. J. Capper.
<3 larva.

auricoma, male.
female.
larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

pe)

PLATE, (al.

R Morgan del, et hth Vincent Brooks,Day & Son Imp

L Reeve & C° London

s
be ®
er

gly ke

i

in

we
pe

RiGee

ier

PLATE CXXII.

Acronycta tridens, male.

>

» female.
» var., Dr. T. A. Chapman.
3 larva, Mr Aa sich:
psi, male.
» female.
var., Dr. T. A. Chapman.
» |, ondon-snburbs:
oa Jarwa:
euphorbie, male.
es female.

- larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

PLATE: 127

R Morgan del et hth

Vincent Brooks Day & Son Imp

LReeve & C° London

PLATE CXXIII.

Fic. 1. Acronycta rumicis, male.

la. 3 * female.

1b. - var., salicis.

le. Pe “ » Mr F..J. Hanbury:

1d. ss a3 » larva, Mr G. C. Bignell:
2 . ligustri.

2G. © - var, Mr.(G.0 Porritt:

2b. - i - és 3) Morks:
2¢ af ne

2d. i i larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

5. Arsilonche venosa, male.
od. 3 a3 female.

3b. eo > larva.

PLATE 123

RMorgan del, et lith. Vincent Brooks,Day & Sanimp

I Reeve & C®? London.

PIA Cx:

Mic. 1. Agrotis valligera, male.

la. Be ii female.

1b. - = male, var.

le. & e female, var.

1d. os < An *

le. e m bs =

Wie - “ larva, Mr. W. Buckler.
2. « suffusa, male.

2a. . a female.

2b. rs cr male, var.

AGE a - larva

R Morgan del, et hth.

L. Reeve & C° London

Vincent Brooks,Day& SanImp

PLATE CXXV.

Fic. 1. Agrotis segetum, male.

la. 5 * female.

1d. RP as male, var., Mr. F. J. Hanbury.
ie e be ee se mn

1d. ts re female, var., Dr. P. B. Mason.
le. - x i Prt * 5

ie me ee ss » Mr. F. J. Hanbury.
ly. ie < larva.

rap rs puta, male.

2a. oe », female.

2b. He 5, male, var.

2e. ie », female, var., Colonel Partridge.

2d. %, +) lena

PLATE

R.Morgan delet hth

NOT
London

L Reeve & (

PLATE CXXVi-

Fic. 1. Agrotis corticea, male.

la. ae = female.

10. x i male, var., Mr. F. J. Hanbury.
le. os r bs 6 MriG. fs Porritt:
ld. s a es » Maoh, SaElanburs.
le. 3 a female, ,, x He

ie * =. larva.

2. - cinerea, male, Mr. I’. J. Hanbury.

2a. 3 ‘ female, i i

20. io es male, var., ,,

2G: Y a ¥ - as

2d £ va % a *

2e. - - female, var.

ihe * x larva, Mr. W, Buckler.

PLATE 126

RMorgan delet lith

= = Sto
Vineent Brooks,Day & Son Imp

L Reeve & GC? London

ats! v7:
hl j= ge

Fic. 1.

la.

1d.
le.

ees

le.
We

ly.
Ih.
14.

17.
lk.

Ly,

PLATE CXXVII.

Agrotis exclamationis, male.

female.

male, var.

a DrPs BoiMason:

female, var.

9 oy rare

Hanbury.
ry) 99 9 bb)
39 be Mr. G. AM
Porritt.

PLATE 127

RMorgan del,et hth Vincent Brooks,Day & Son Imp

LReeve & C° London

PLATE CXXVIII.

Fic. 1. . Agrotis lunigera, male.

la. < a female.

10. # - male, var.

Le, - is eynandro, Lieut. E. W. Browne.
1d. ES ce larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

2 ks ripe, male.

2G. a ,, female.

20. 5 s s) eve

Ze. ce e ‘A ~ Drive BeiMason:

2d. Be 5 - » Mr. F. J. Hanbury.

2e. ” ” ” 2 ” ”

29. a » ‘larva,

PLATE: las:

R.Morgan del. et lith. Vincent Brooks,Day & Son Imp.

L Reeve & C2 London

PLATE CXXIX.

Agrotis cursoria, male.

99

>) ’
33

99 39

39

b b]

female.
var., Eastern Counties.

3 99
3° +/5) >)
be) 99 bh)
) 39 9)
., Hast of Scotland,

Mr. A. Horne.
ry) ” ey) 29
., West of Ireland,

Mr. P. Russ.

ee Drei BS Mason:

larva , Mr. W. Buckler.

PLATE 129.

RMorgan. del, et Lith. Vine

ay & Son Imp

L Reeve & C° London

Fie. 1.

la.
1b:
Ve
ld.
le.
Wie
ly.
Wh
We:

PLATE CXXxX.

Acrotis nigricans, male.

% female.
A var.

99

99

o)E)

, Mr Ge i orritt:
larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

R Morgan del, et hth

L. Reeve & C° London

Vincent Bro oks,Day & Son Imp

~

VU,

PLATE CXXXI.

Fie 1. Agrotis tritici, male.

la. a , female.

1b. us , var., Norfolk.

Ve: 5 as 6 3

ld. + af :, 55

le. i a .. Hast of Ireland.

If. ‘ , West of Ireland

ge = 3 rar Fos

lh. Be - < bs rs

1a. = Ss . North of Ireland.

17. BA ,, larva, specimen furnished by Mr.

C. 8. Gregson.

Morgan del, et hth.

VINCENt Bre

PEATE COG

Fic. 1. Agrotis tritici, var. resembling A. subgothica.

la. - x .. Mr. F. J. Hanbury.

1d. a gh ,, North-East Scotland, Mr. A.
Horne.

te - a a a . ae

2 ,, subgothica, original type, Dr. P. B.
Mason.

3. ., aquilina, male.

OU. female.

3b. var.

larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

ws)
SS

39

PLATE 182.

R Morgan del, et lith

L Reeve &

C2 London

PLATE CXXXIIT.

Fic. 1. Agrotis obelisca, male.

la. ae : female, Mr. F. J. Hanbury.

1b. . var. Ireland.

le. ra be , Isle of Wight, Mr. A. J.
Hodges.

ld. 5 3 larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

Dip , agathina, Norfolk, Mr. E. A. Atmore.

2a. re ss var. Dr. P. B. Mason.

Las ue 48 ,, Ireland.

2c. - “a , scotland.

2d. x as larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

PLATE 133

R Morgan del, et ith

ent Brook Day &So

L. Reeve & C2 London.

csi
»
-
= .
- .
‘

ie
x

PLATE: CXXXTV.

Fic. 1. Agrotis porphyrea, male.

la. 3 a female.
1b. es i male, var. Shetland.
le. - 3 female, .. x
Mad. J. Pox, Kang:
ld. se - larva, Mr. W. Buckler.
2. 5, pYreecox.
2a. i Pe var.
2b. ss 3 » Mr. F. N. Pierce.

2c. es ,, larva, Mr. G. C. Bignell.

PLATE 134

R Morgan del, et. hth. Vincent. Brooks Day & Son Imp

LReeve & C° London

Fie

1.

la.

PLATE SCY

Agrotis saucia.

50) War:
- » Mr. F. J. Hanbury.
., larva, Mr. W. Buckler.
pyrophila, Isle of Portland, Mr. N. M.
Richardson.
es var. Scotland, Dr. P. B. Mason.

PLATE 185

R.Moréan del et lth VincentBrooks

Fie. 1.

la.

PLATE CXXXVI.

Agrotis ravida, male,

39

; female.
» larva, Mr. W. Buckler.
Ashworthii, male, Mr. C. 8. Gregson.
as female, # ,
= larva, Mr. W. Buckler.
lucernea.
s var. North Wales, Dr. P. B.
Mason.
x », South coast, wn *
a larva, Mr. W. Buckler.

R Morgan del, et hth.

ga

=
ta

Reeve &

C° London

Vincent Brooks

Day&So

ning

. 7 PEA me
er ay an ?

! al a

Mp
5 ’
nite '
| i< 7 7 ne part re :
Be ! [ire . >
: - 7 ‘ ie

ma?) 2

i m1 0,

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NOILNLILSNI S3SIYVYEIT LIBRARIES SMITHSONIAN INSTITL
w Zz n = jaw ” = RR:
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g = zi, S Ws 2 =
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ee = ; ” 2 ” . 2 ”
VUGIT LIBRARIES SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION NOILNLILSNI NVINOSHLINS S314

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