THE PROMINENT MOTHS OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 103 
be found sitting not far from the ground on the trunks of large 
oaks. When touched it moves its wings in a peculiar tremulous 
manner, whence its Latin name ¢repida. Tho Essex and Suffolk 
collectors have a curious and ingenious way of catching the males 
of this insect. When they breed a femalo moth they take her 
out into the vicinity of the woods before dark, and fetter her by 
a horse-hair or piece of fine silk (tied round the junction of the 
thorax and abdomen) to the stem of a large oak. As soon as 
it is dark, various male suitors make their appearance, anxious 
to woo and win. Having secured a specimen or two for his 
cabinet the collector permits the wedding to take place, and is 
thus sure of a set of fertile eggs to breed from for the following 
year. . 
14. Notodonta chaonia (the Lunar Marbled Brown). — This 
pretty Prominent may, with the next and last species, easily be 
distinguished from its compeers by the conspicuous, broad, 
whitish bar in the centre of the soft ashy-brown upper wings. 
Tt is altogether a paler and brighter looking insect than the 
next species JV. dodonea, and appears a month earlier. Ihave 
several times beaten the larva, which is fullfed at the end of June 
or beginning of July, from tall oaks in this neighbourhood. It 
is a uniform glaucous sickly green, with two yellow stripes on 
the back and one on the sides ; and feeds exclusively on oak. The 
moth appears in May, 
14. Notodonta dodonea (the Marbled Brown).-—This pretty 
little Prominent, altogether a smaller, narrower, and darker 
insect than the preceding species, has its upper wings con- 
spicuously marbled and bound with white, thence its name. It 
appears a month later than its congener chaonia. I once beat the 
larva from oak, on which it exclusively feeds, in this neighbour- 
hood; and Mr. Greene met with it sparingly at Halton. Itis 
exceedingly like the caterpillar of the Carmelite Prominent in 
shape and colour, yellowish-green, and wrinkled with two slender 
_ yellow dotted lines on the back and a yellow and pink stripe on 
the side. It is full fed in August. 
~ Ican assure my readers that if these few disjointed remarks of 
