THE GLAUCOUS SHEARS. 245 



The Nutmeg {Mamestra trifolii). 



The fore wings of this species (Plate 122, Figs. 3, 4) are usually 

 greyish brown variegated with darker : cross lines pale with 

 black edging. Sometimes the general colour is tinged with 

 ochreous. The caterpillar is green with a darker central and 

 two whitish lines on the back, the outer lines with black marks 

 on them ; a white edged pinkish stripe along the black-margined 

 white spiracles. It feeds from July to September, sometimes 

 earlier or later, on goose-foot, orach, beet, and other Chenopo- 

 diacae, and has also been found on young leaves of onion. The 

 moth is out in May and June, and as a second generation in 

 late July and August. In 1903 a specimen was taken, at 

 Boscombe, on March 21. The species is more especially 

 attached to the coast, but is plentiful in the Breck Sand district 

 of Norfolk and Suffolk, in market gardens and waste places 

 around London, and is found more or less frequently up to 

 Staffordshire. In Cheshire and Yorkshire it is scarce. Barrett 

 states that in Scotland it is found rarely in Roxburghshire 

 and Aberdeenshire ; and not very uncommonly in the Clyde 

 Valley ; it is, however, not mentioned in the list of the lepido- 

 ptera of the Clyde area published in 1901. Only two specimens 

 have been recorded from Ireland. The range abroad includes 

 Northern Asia, Canada, and the United States of America. 



The Glaucous Shears {Mamestra ghwca). 



Noticeable features of this dark-clouded whitish grey species 

 (Plate 122, Figs. 5 5)69) are the whitish, or whitish outlined, 

 stigmata ; and the conspicuous black wedges on the inner 

 edge of the pale submarginal line. The ground colour is some- 

 times purplish tinged ; the dark clouding may spread over the 

 greater part of the fore wings. The caterpillar is dark red 

 brown with darker freckles, a whitish central line, and two 



