LEPIDOPTERA. 315 



fore-wings are faintly tinged with pale lilac, and more or less 

 clouded with rust-red ; they have an irregular row of blackish 

 dots near the outer hind margin, and are crossed by three whitish 

 lines, of which the first nearest the shoulders is broken and widely 

 separated in the middle, the second divides into two branches, 

 one of which goes straight across the wing to the inner margin, 

 and the other passes obliquely till it meets the end of the third line, 

 with which it forms an angle or letter V ; across the middle of 

 the hind- wings there is a narrow brownish band, much more dis- 

 tinct beneath than above ; on the top of the thorax there is an 

 oblong chestnut-colored spot, the hairs of which rise upwards 

 behind and form a crest. All the whitish lines on the fore-wings 

 are more or less bounded externally with rust-red. It expands 

 from one inch and one quarter to one inch and five eighths. In 

 Georgia this insect breeds twice a year ; and the caterpillars eat 

 the leaves of the willow as well as those of the poplar*. 



2. Owlet-moths. (Noctuce.) 



Our second tribe of moths, the Nocture of Linnaeus, appears 

 to have been thus named from JYoctua, an owl, because they fly 

 chiefly by night, and are hence called eulen, or owl-moths by the 

 Germans. This tribe contains a very large number of thick- 

 bodied and swift-flying moths, most of which may be distinguish- 

 ed by the following characters. The antennas are long and taper- 

 ing, and seldom pectinated even in the males ; the tongue is long ; 

 the feelers are very distinct, and project more or less beyond the 

 face, the two lower joints being compressed or flattened at the 

 sides, and the last joint is slender and small ; the thorax is thick, 

 with rather prominent collar and shoulders, and is often crested on 

 the top ; the body tapers behind ; the wings are always fastened 

 together by bristles and hooks, are generally roofed, when at rest, 

 and each of the fore-wings is marked behind the middle of the 

 front margin with two spots, one of them round and small, and 

 the other larger and kidney-shaped. A few of them fly by day, 

 the others only at night. Their colors are generally dull, and of 



* See Phalcena anastomosis of Smith, in Abbot's " Insects of Georgia," p. 

 143, pi. 72. 



