THE NOCTUINA. 1 25 



not noticed in any other of the Lepidoptera, and their use is 

 by no means evident. When ready to assume the chrysahs 

 state the lobster caterpillar spins a slight cocoon, and protects 

 it with leaves. 



The largest group of the order of the Lepidoptera is called 

 Noctuina. The majority of night-flying moths belong to it, 

 and they are very properly named after their nocturnal habits. 

 As there is no rule, even in Nature, without an exception, so 

 we find that several kinds of the Noctuina fly by day, and 

 enjoy the sunlight as much as any butterfly. The number of 

 species in this group is immense, and about 800 are pretty well 

 known in Europe, and there are about 300 British species. 

 Naturalists meet with great difficulties in classifying them 

 into genera, and even their specific differences are either very 

 hard or impossible to make out. There are no satisfactory 

 distinctions between some of the moths which enable any one to 

 say that they are of such and such species, and very frequently 

 they are separated into different kinds, because they happen 

 to feed upon various plants, and because the moths are not all 

 coloured in the same manner. Of course the entomologists 

 that believe in the real nature of species have taken a vast 

 deal of trouble with the Nocticina, but those who do not think 

 a species to be anything more than an abstract idea, and that 

 it really consists of the sum of the variations of a closely 

 allied series of forms, do not see the use of this natural 

 history hair-splitting. The comparative study of a sub-group of 

 the Noctidna is certainly very instructive. There are ten, 

 twenty, thirty, and more kinds of moths whose structures are 

 in the main alike, there being only the appreciable differences 

 produced by the details of their ornamentation. Their dis- 

 tinctive characters are so feeble that no philosophical naturalist 

 would care to call any of the species other than varieties of 

 some common type. In fact, in studying these Noctuina in 

 the adult form, every one must admit that they oppose the 

 notion of species in its ordinary acceptation. The most inte- 

 resting part of the examination refers to the caterpillars, for 

 those belonging to moths, which are almost exactly alike, 

 present very marked distinctions. The moths resemble each 



