1872.1 41 



The pupa was rather short and stout, smooth and cylmdrical, ending in a short 

 pair of blunt spikes, diverging from each other ; the colour a deep reddish-brown. — 

 Wm. Buckler, Emsworth : Jime, 1872. 



Description of the larva of Brephos notha.- — I had no opportunity of becoming 

 acquainted with this species till 1869, when Mr. W. H. Harwood kindly sent me 

 several yoimg larvae ; these fed well, but as I did not know how to provide for their 

 pupation, my hopes of seeing the imago in 1870 were sadly blighted. However, in 

 that year Mr. W. R. Jeffrey sent me two larvae from Saffron Walden, and, as I 

 managed to accommodate them more suitably than my former stock, I succeeded in 

 rearing two fine moths. 



As the insects appear early in April, the eggs must be laid some time during 

 that month ; the larvse feed on Aspen (Populiis tremulnj, spinning the leaves to- 

 gether flat-wise for concealment ; those I had in 1869, on June 2nd, were still small, 

 barely half-an-inch in length, but they grew fast after this, and retired to change by 

 the 29th. The dates I have for the appearance of the imago are April 8th and 9tb, 

 1870 (both cripples), and April 4th and 7th, 1871. 



The larva, up to half-an-inch in length, is very dingy, nearly black, but bearing 

 some exceedingly fine, pale drab longitudinal lines ; after moulting, and when about 

 three-quarters of an inch in length, it becomes less like a Noctua in form than it was 

 before, and more like a Geometer, both in form and manner of progression ; its coloiu* 

 now is of a delicate green, inclining in some instances to glaucous, the longitu- 

 dinal lines become whitish-yellow ; the head and second segment spotted with black ; 

 the segmental folds whitish -yellow. The growth now is rapid, and, in some indivi- 

 duals, black spots appear on the sides, in a day or two developing into stripes ; but 

 in others, no more spots appear than those on the head and the second segment. 



The larva, when full-grown, is about one inch in length, not very stout, cylindri- 

 cal, and diminishes so very slightly towards the extremities, that it appears of uiiiform 

 biilk throughout : the head "is full and rounded : the two front pairs of ventral legs 

 are much less developed than the next two pairs, and the liindmost pair are splayed 

 laterally : beneath the anal flap is a small point, with a tubercle on each side of it ; 

 the segments are plumj) and well defined : the mode of progression is an undulating, 

 half-looping, quick walk, changed to what may be called a run when the larva is ex- 

 posed to light. 



The ground colour is now of a pale subdued tint of green, or else a briglit vel- 

 vety yellowish-green, the dorsal vessel rather a deeper tint of the same, edged with 

 fine lines of pale greenish-vellow, the sub-dorsal fine line is yellow, and between it 

 and the spiracles runs another such fine line — the side being now more or less black 

 is, by this pale line, divided into two broad black stripes, which, in some specimens, 

 are complete, in others only partly so ; the spLraeles are white, outlined delicately witli 

 black, and beneath them is a broadish stripe of pale yellow or whitish-yellow ; the 

 belly and legs paler green than the back : in one individual a short, tapering, black 

 streak, issued at the end of each segment for half its length forwards as an edge to the 

 sub-dorsal line, but these streaks began on the twelfth and ceased at the fifth segment. 



I The black marks on the head and second segment appear to be constant, and charac- 

 teristic of this species, they may be more minutely described as follows : a broad 



