THE LARGE DARK PROMINENT. 73 



knowledge was reared on August lo, 1842 from a caterpillar 

 found in Essex on aspen. This example was included, with two 

 others, one of which was captured in Suffolk, in the collection 

 of the late Dr. Mason, which was dispersed at Stevens' Auction 

 Rooms in March, 1905. 



Besides the specimens mentioned above, a caterpillar, which 

 subsequently died, was beaten from alder in the Exeter district 

 in 1870; another was obtained from hazel in Gloucestershire, 

 but this was " ichneumoned." Then there is a record of a moth 

 or caterpillar, presumably the former, occurring in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Paisley ; and there is a report that a caterpillar 

 was once^found at the base of an aspen growing on Clapham 

 Common. A specimen was taken at electric light at Bedford, 

 May, 1907. 



The caterpillar is green, with three reddish humps on the 

 back, and an interrupted reddish line along the sides. It feeds 

 on poplar in July and August. 



The Large Dark Prominent {Nofodonta iritophus = 



torva). 



Another Central European species, of which only one specimen 

 is known to have occurred in Britain. This was reared from an 

 ^%%, or from a caterpillar, obtained in Norfolk in the latter part 

 of the summer of 1882. The moth might be mistaken for a 

 small dark coloured specimen of the next species (A^. ircpida), 

 but the dark hindwings readily distinguish it (Plate 31. Fig. 4). 



The caterpillar, although darker, bears considerable re- 

 semblance to that of the Pebble Prominent ; it feeds in June 

 and July, and also in September, on aspen. 



According to Staudinger this species is the tritopJiiis of Esper, 

 an earlier name than torva, Hiibn.; whilst the preceding species, 

 that has so long been referred to iritophus, Fabricius (or 

 trilophus), is found to be phwde, Siebert, which name has 

 seventeen years' priority. 



