CUSPIDATES. 



211 



body glaucous green, with a bright and 

 distinct double stripe on each side, which, 

 commencing immediately behind the head, 

 ascends towards the back on the sixth seg- 

 ment, and then, after descending, is con- 

 tinued in a direct line to the base of one 

 of the caudal horns ; this stripe is divided 

 throughout, the upper half being pink, the 

 lower half white ; the dorsal area has an 

 oblique white streak on each side of each 

 segment ; the caudal horns are blackish, 

 tipped with red ; the spiracles are yellow ; 

 the claspers pale green. The CHRYSALIS is 

 to be found within a compact gummy cocoon 

 on the trunks of alders (Alnus glutinosa), 

 and I believe that is the only tree on which 

 the caterpillar feeds : as many as ten of the 

 empty cocoons have passed through my 

 hands, all of them still adhering to a por- 

 tion of the alder bark. Mr. Greene also 

 says : " I have found the cocoons, empty, 

 I am sorry to say, here on alder ; but as yet 

 all my efforts to find one from which the 

 insect had not escaped have been fruitless. 

 The vacant cocoons have been found almost 

 invariably about four feet from the ground 

 and on the north side of the tree. Very 

 rarely the caterpillar spins its cocoon on the 

 wood [bark ?] and not in the crevices or 

 chinks; of course they (the cocoons) are 

 much more easily detected in the former 

 situation, but I do not remember to have 

 seen it more than once. I think it a good 

 plan to scrape the trunk with the edge of 

 the trowel." 



The MOTH appears on the wing in May. 

 At present it seems to be a species of some 

 rarity in this country, but its range is rather 

 ^extensive. Its principal habitat is the 

 Weald of Sussex. " It has been taken 

 several times at Burton-on-Trent," also in 

 Derbyshire, and even as far north as Lanca- 

 shire. (The scientific name is Dicranura 

 bicuspis.) This species must not be con- 

 founded with the Cerura bicuspis of Eng- 

 lish authors, which, together with Cerura 

 integra and C. latifascia of Stephens, must 

 be referred to my Dicranura furcula. It 

 may here be observed that nothing has so 

 constantly retarded the progress of ento- 

 mology in this country as the intense desire 

 to make new species. 



386. The Sallow Kitten (Dicranura fvrcula). 



386. THE SALLOW KITTEN. The an- 

 tennae of the male are strongly pectinated, 

 those of the female slightly so ; the shaft 

 of the antennae is white, the pectinations 

 black: the fore wings are rather narrow, 

 with a very straight costa and a rounded 

 tip; their colour is pale gray or whitish 

 gray, with a broad transverse median band 

 of a darker gray ; the interior margin of 

 this band is straight, and is bordered by a 

 straight black line, and this is accompanied 

 by a straight yellow line ; the exterior 

 margin has a wide concave notch near the 

 costa, and an obtuse angle below the notch ; 

 it is bordered by black and yellow like the 

 interior margin, but these colours, and in- 

 deed the boundary of the band, almost dis- 

 appear as the latter gradually slopes to- 

 wards the anal angle and approaches the 

 inner margin : between the band and the 

 base of the wing is a transverse series of 

 five black spots, and at the base of the wing 

 is a single black spot ; exterior to the band 

 is a small circular discoidal spot ; and again 

 beyond this are three zigzag black lines, the 

 third expanding into a large transverse 

 dark gray blotch on the costa ; on the hind 

 margin itself is a series of eight small 

 circular black spots : the hind wings of the 

 male are white, with an occasional smoke- 

 coloured cloud and a marginal series of 

 black dots : in some of the females the 

 hind wings are white, in others smoky ; the 

 marginal black spots are always present : 

 the head and collar are white ; the thorax 

 is whitish, with three transverse black bars 

 more or less interspersed with yellow ; the 

 body is gray, with smoke-coloured bands. 



The EGGS are laid singly on the leaves of 

 several species of the genus Salix, more 

 particularly those called sallows (Salix 

 caprsea and 8. cinered) : the young cater- 



