228 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



mediately behind the head, and extending 

 into the anal claspers; this yellow stripe 

 includes the black spiracles : four other 

 stripes are indicated on the dorsal area : 

 these are slightly darker than the ground 

 colour : the legs are nearly black ; the 

 claspers green. (See fig. 10, p. 203.) 



The MOTH appears in June : it is said to 

 have been taken at Killarney, in Ireland, by 

 the late Mr. Bouchard, and also at Burnt 

 Wood, in Staffordshire, as recorded in the 

 Zoologist for 1861, at p. 7682, in these 

 words : " At the ordinary meeting of the 

 Manchester Entomological Society, held on 

 the 3rd of July, 1861, Mr. John Smith, an 

 artisan collector resident here, exhibited a 

 specimen of Notodonta Tricolor, captured by 

 himself at Burnt Wood, Staffordshire, in 

 the latter part of June last. The specimen 

 is a fine male, though a little rubbed, 

 through being boxed out of the net." There 

 have been several subsequent records of 

 this species at the same locality. (The 

 scientific name is Notodonta bicolor.) 



403. The Swallow Prominent (Notodonta dictcea). 



403. THE SWALLOW PROMINENT. The 

 antennae are moderately pectinated in the 

 male, very slightly so in the female ; the 

 fore wings are rather long and rather 

 narrow, their costal margin nearly straight, 

 the tip rather prolonged and obtuse ; the 

 hind margin sinuous ; the inner margin has 

 a small^ and inconspicuous lobe or angle 

 about the middle ; their colour is pale 

 whitey-brown in the centre, the costal mar- 

 gin darker, the dark part expanding into a 

 narrow longitudinal chocolate-brown blotch 

 near the tip ; near the inner margin, and 

 extending from the middle of the base to 

 the hind margin, is a rich chocolate-brown 

 shade, the upper margin of which vanishes 

 in the pale median area ; this shade is in- 



terrupted near the hind margin by several 

 whitish longitudinal streaks ; the first long, 

 narrow, and pointed at the anal angle ; the 

 second somewhat like a compressed cres- 

 cent ; the third near the base and touching 

 the thorax ; the inner margin, especially 

 near the base, has an ochreous tinge ; the 

 hind margin has three slender lines, the 

 interior very pale, the next very dark, the 

 exterior one is intermediate in colour be- 

 tween the other two ; three lines are inter- 

 sected by very pale wing-rays : the hind 

 wings are very pale, with a compound brown 

 blotch at the anal angle ; the fringe is of two 

 colours opposite the blotch, the inner pale, 

 the outer darker ; the thorax is umber-brown 

 tinged with gray ; the body grayish-brown. 

 The CATERPILLAR has rather a large head, 

 very slightly notched on the crown and 

 shining ; it is of pale green colour : the 

 body is almost uniformly cylindrical until 

 the twelfth segment, which is humped, the 

 hump terminating in a moderately sharp 

 point ; the colour of the body is whitish or 

 glaucous-green on the back, with a broad 

 paler green stripe on each side, and adjoin- 

 ing this there is a narrow raised yellow- 

 green stripe, just below the spiracles, and 

 touching all of them except that on the 

 twelfth segment ; it extends the entire 

 length of the caterpillar, terminating in 

 the anal claspers ; on the summit of the 

 twelfth or humped segment is a black trans- 

 verse line. It feeds on poplar (Populns 

 nigra), sallow (Salix caprsea), &c., and is 

 full-fed about the 22nd of September ; it 

 then spins a thin but large cocoon on the 

 surface of the earth, attaching the upper 

 part to a fallen leaf, which thus performs 

 the office of roof to the domicile, in which 

 it remains throughout the winter. There 

 is a very common variety of this caterpillar, 

 plain brown, without the slightest appear- 

 ance of the lateral stripe : this occurs aftei 

 the last change of skin. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in May 

 and June, and occurs throughout England, 

 north, south, east, and west ; also occasion- 

 ally in Scotland. Mr. Birchall found it not 

 uncommonly in the county Wicklow, in 

 Ireland. (The scientific name is Notodonta 

 dictsea.) 



