THE NOCTUINA. I31 



caterpillars are remarkable for the ease with which they may 

 be picked off the flowers and leaves on which they feed. The 

 French call them Capuchins, on account of the peculiar hood- 

 shaped projection. The caterpillars come out during the evening 

 from amongst the leaves and flowers of the mullein and other 

 scrophularious plants, where they have been hidden during the 

 day. They are easily known, for they are of a greenish white 

 colour, with a rather broad bright yellow transverse band on each 

 segment, reaching from spiracle to spiracle ; the ordinary spots, 

 which are black and very large, are in this band, and a black spot 

 follows each spiracle, two others being below it. The face of the 

 larva is yellowish and spotted with blue. They are of all sizes ; 

 and as they grow large they seek the foot of the plant, and make 

 a cocoon underground with some grains of sand and pieces of 

 earth and silk. The moths often fly around the plants which 

 nourish them in the caterpillar state, and are remarkable for their 

 wood-like tints and russet brown colour, the tints passing insen- 

 sibly into a more or less bright red. 



In the engraving the caterpillars are to be noticed upon the 

 leaves of the mullein, and one of the moths, above the flower, 

 shows its Capuchin hood very distinctly. 



A few of the Noctuina have metallic markings upon their 

 wings, and one of them is called the Silver Y, or Pliisia gamma; 

 it has a silvery mark on its fore wings like the Greek y. The 

 caterpillar, which is covered with but few hairs, is green, and has 

 six white lines and two yellow ones upon it. When it is full 

 grown it makes a small cocoon of pure silk, and then turns up 

 a leaf and hides it. This plan of above ground hiding, so different 

 to that usually employed by the Noctuina, also takes place in the 

 genus Catocala. These moths are, as their name implies, " beau- 

 tiful beneath ;" when they are at rest they form a not particularly 

 handsome flat grey triangle ; but when the hind wings, which are 

 either red or greyish-blue, are exposed to view, the elegance of 

 the insect is at once apparent. The larvae, which are long and 

 by no means handsome, have their heads flattened and rather 

 forked at the top, and the face is placed obliquely ; they often 

 have small humps, and they feed on trees, and rest attached 

 to the trunks. The moths are of large size, and their thorax 



J 2 



