187S.] 183 



defined, and the ja'n-s large, the segments phimp and distinct nt the divisions, the 

 only very noticeable -wrinkles being on the third and fourth ; the general colouring 

 of the body is a light and rather shining pallid flesh colour, almost a light drab on 

 the thoracic segments, melting gradually from thence into a more warm fleshy tint, 

 excepting on the belly -which is pallid ; do-wn the middle of the back can just be 

 seen, deep beneath the surface of the skin, a faint appearance of a pinkish-bro-wn 

 dorsal vessel, gently pulsating ; the head is of a dark brick-red colour, very glossy, 

 and -with a fe-w fine hairs, the vpper lipjlesh colour, the mouth dark bro-wn ; the 

 broad glossy plate across the second segment is rather brighter than the head, and is 

 reddish-brown, its front margin slightly waved and boldly defined with very dark 

 brown, the semi-circular hind margin narrowly outlined with the same dark brotvn ; 

 this plate is -well relieved from the lobes of the head by an interval of the pale skin 

 between them (generally conspicuous) ; the glossy jAate on the anal flap is also light 

 reddish-brown, strongly outlined tviih very dark brown in front, and more narrowly 

 behind ; the tubercular tvarty spots are rather small, smallest on the middle segments 

 of the body, not very sliining, and of reddish-broivn coZoMr, each bearing a hair, their 

 number and arrangement precisely similar to those ol polyodon m\fS.lithoxylea;* 

 the spiracles are small, oval, and black j the anterior legs reddish-brown, the ventral 

 ones fringed with dark brown hooks. 



The pupa is fi'om six-eighths to seven-eighths of an inch in length, moderately 

 stout, and of the usual Noctua figure ; close below the ends of the wing-covers the 

 abdomen begins gradually to taper, and there the next two rings are more deeply 

 cut than those towards the tip, which has a blunt prolongation furnished with a 

 central pair of straight pointed spines, and farther apart outside them another pair, 

 thinner, shorter, and curved a little outwards ; the colour of the tip and spines is 

 black, all the rest a deep and rich red-brown, the whole surface, with the exception 

 of a narrow band of punctures across the front of the more prominent abdominal 

 rings, very glossy. 



From the preceding account it will be seen at once that_/((rya, in the appearance 

 and habits of its larva, is much more of a Xylophasia than a Mamestra, a resemblance 

 noticed before by Gruenee (Tome v, p. 198), in words of which there is a translation 

 in Newman's British Moths ; but I am inclined to think that his description, as 

 well as that of Freyer, quoted in Stainton's Manual, does not sufficiently give the 

 points of distinction, which, in the midst of much general resemblance, satisfactorily 

 separate this larva from polyodon (of lateritia, the other Xylophasia mentioned by 

 G-uenee, I know nothing) ; and I can suggest an explanation of this confusion, from 

 two circumstances which happened to myself whilst rearing the larvae, and either of 

 which might have set me quite wrong, had I not taken the precaution to rear each 

 example separately. I had been prepared by Mr. Dunsmore for expecting ichncumoned 

 larva}, presenting an abnormal appearance, and amongst my stock I found two, in 

 which the head plates and spots were precisely similar in form and appearance to 

 the same features in the healthy larvte, so that no doubt could exist of the species, 

 notwithstanding the size they ultimately attained ; one of them, after moulting on 

 the 11th of April, became, by the 20th, nearly one and a half inches long, and very 

 stout ; its skin minutely wrinkled transversely, and of a dull pink colour ; on May 



* Vide vol. xi, iiage 208. 



