116 HAUSTELLATA. — LEPIDOPTF.RA, 



precisely similar : in some males the anterior wings are of a hoary-ash, in 

 others almost black (6), and all intermediate gradations; the costa is some- 

 times of a darker hue than the inner edge of the wing, and spotted with pale 

 flavescent at the origin of the strigte ; at others the wing is of an uniform 

 tinge. Again, the stigmata not only vary in shape, hut in number, one or 

 more being occasionally obliterated ; and sometimes all become obsolete ; the 

 anterior one is generally dark in the centre, and either round, subovate, or 

 ovate-acute (7), and is frequently united to the posterior one by two black 

 streaks (8), or to the second striga by a black line; the reniform one is 

 generally dusky in the centre, with a paler margin ; and the third, or teUform 

 stigma, varies exceedingly in length, stoutness, and intensity : the nervures 

 are sometimes dilated, and brown (9), and the centre of the wing between 

 the stigmata has occasionally a broad angulated dusky fascia : finally, the 

 males are found of the dark hue of the females, and vice versa. 

 Caterpillar fuscous, with paler dorsal and lateral lines, with four or five black 

 spots on each segment: it is found at the roots of corn, and changes to a 

 dusky-brown pupa towards the end of May, and in the following month the 

 imago appears. 



Probably the most variable of the British Noctuidse, scarcely two 

 specimens occurring precisely alike, and their discrepancies being 

 occasionally so considerable as to induce Mr. Haworth to describe 

 several as distinct species, in the early pages of liis valuable Lepi- 

 doptera Britannica ; a mistake which he has very properly corrected 

 in the concluding part, as there can be no doubt of all being re- 

 ferrible to one inconstant species, which is a great pest in several 

 districts, and abounds to a most destructive extent in certain years ; 

 the larvae doing incalculable mischief by destroying the young corn, 

 insidiously devouring the roots and base of the plant, while the 

 blade is left untouched. In the autumn of 1826, and the succeed- 

 ing spring, the larvae abounded, and in June following the imago 

 actually swarmed, in the neighbourhood of Ripley, the hedges 

 for nearly three weeks being literally alive with their multitudes, 

 as I found to my loss, while mothing. About the same period 

 the lands in the neighbourhood of Barham, in Suffolk, were similarly 

 visited, and the Rev. W. Kirby told me that several bushels of 

 the larvae were destroyed by Mr. Rodwell. 



Sp. 5. sufFusa. Alis anticis griseis fusco-nebulosis, autfuscis, apice pallidioribus, 

 lineold medid duabusque apicis puncto alho notatis atris. (Exp. alar. 1 unc. 

 9 lin. — 2 unc.) 



(6) No. subatrata, Haworth. (7) No. Corticea, Haw. 



(8) No. connexa. Haw. (9) No. venosa, Haiv. 



