18*2 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the convexity of each towards the median suture : the colour 

 of the dorsal area of the body is greenish yellow, delicately 

 striated with brown ; like the larvae of many other true Noc- 

 tua3, it is marked from the 4th segruent to the 10th, both 

 inclusive, with a subdorsal stripe, surmounted on each seg- 

 ment with a wedge-shaped black spot, the apex of which 

 points towards the head of the larva ; the medio-dorsal stripe 

 is straight, nearly while, and delicately bordered on each 

 side with brown ; it is scarcely perceptible on the middle 

 segments. The spiracular stripe is indicated by a series of 

 straight brown markings ; the spiracles are oval, black and 

 encircled with white : the ventral is paler than the dorsal 

 area, and has no markings : the feet are testaceous, the ex- 

 tremities black ; the claspers are concolorous with the ven- 

 tral area, except at the extremities, which are brown. In the 

 autumn this larva hybernates towards the roots of the 

 herbage, feeding again in May for a short time ; when full- 

 fed it again descends towards the ground, and, secreting 

 itself among fragments of its food-plant, spins a cocoon of 

 these materials, mixed with particles of earth ; in this it 

 almost immediately changes to a pupa, which is of moderate 

 length and ordinary form, and rather glabrous, brown, with a 

 black tip to the abdomen, which is furnished with four 

 straight but rather spreading spine-like bristles ; of these the 

 outer one on each side is only half the length of the others. 

 The moth appears in July. Treitschke was the first author 

 to observe and describe this Noctua ; it was first found in 

 Hungary, and subsequently in Silesia and Iceland ; M. Mil- 

 here, from whose ' Iconographie' (ii. 61) the description of 

 the larva is extracted, seems to think Iceland its true 

 country. I have not thought it desirable to copy Milliere's 

 description of the imago, as I have been enabled, through 

 the great kindness of my friend Mr. Backhouse, to distribute 

 it widely among English entomologists : it is a festiva in 

 miniature, and it is rather singular that this similarity does 

 not seem to have struck the author I have been quoting. — 

 Edward Neic7tian. 



Description of the Larva of He cat era dysodea. — The larva 

 feeds on the blossoms and seed of the common lettuce : it 

 rests in a straight position on its food- plant, but falls to the 

 ground when disturbed, and, tucking the head under its body, 



