240 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Fig. 8, Male. — Measures in expanse ItV iii* 5 in general foriu 

 resembling N. zonaria. Primaries, ground colour is greyish- 

 white with a slight ochreous tinge, which colour chiefly occupies 

 the whole of the basal half ; four transverse smoky-black bands 

 traverse the wing, the first one is narrow, and situated on the 

 basal fourth, the second traversing the middle, and disconnected 

 from the third by a narrow band of the ground colour, the latter 

 is simply separated from the marginal band by a fine and indis- 

 tinct zig-zag pale line ; all the bands run parallel with the hind 

 margin, and are deep black on the costa and inner margin; the 

 neuration and hind margin is clearly defined by black ; the costa 

 is bright orange-tawny, which is sharply broken up by the black 

 of the four bands; the fringe is smoky-black. Secondaries rather 

 duller in ground colour, and having a mere indication of a sub- 

 marginal whitish band, and a central blackish band indicated by 

 a short transverse bar at the inner margin, and again by the 

 faintest bar close to the disco-cellular nervule ; the neuration, 

 margin, and fringe similar in colouring to the primaries; antennae 

 are strongly pectinated ; head, thorax, abdomen, and base of legs 

 thickly clothed with long hairs, which are black, grey, and 

 orange-tawny, the latter occupying the front of the head, sides, 

 and down the centre of the thorax and down the centre of the 

 abdomen, where they are shorter and grouped in tufts, one on 

 each segment ; the legs are black. 



Fig. 9, Female. — Apterous ; antennae are simple, but when 

 viewed with a strong lens they appear rather thickly scaled and 

 slightly ciliated ; the head, thorax, abdomen, and legs are similar 

 in colouring to the male, but the thorax is less hairy in the female. 



Mr. Christy has kindly communicated the following con- 

 cerning the habits of the imago : — 



*' The insects are :lecidedly sluggish and disinclined to fly, even 

 at night. My idea is that their time of flight is in the day, and 

 when the sml shines. The ovipositor of the female is very long, 

 quite a quarter of an inch. The eggs were laid through some 

 green leno ; several folds of it had been tucked inside a chip-box, 

 and the eggs were laid between the leno and the box. The female 

 must be able to push her eggs into any chink or crevice quite out 

 of harm's way. I have noticed that Amphidasys strataria, A. 

 betularia, and N, Mspidaria all like to deposit their eggs in the 

 same way, that is, pushed a long way into some narrow chink, or 

 between folds of muslin or leno. The eggs are laid in a rough 

 untidy batch, sometimes somewhat overlapping one another, 

 precisely after the manner of N. hispidcma, and to the naked eye 

 they are in size and shape exactly like those of that species, but 

 the colour is different. The female when alive is round and 

 plump, but loses its shape when killed, and becomes flattened 

 and wedge-shaped towards the tail. She will live for two or 

 three weeks." 



