60 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



oblique, and divide the area between the reni- 

 forra and hind margin into three nearly equal 

 parts ; the wing-rays are slightly darker than 

 the ground colour : the hind wings are very 

 pale ochreous white, the wing-rays are slightly 

 darker : the head and thorax are of the most 

 delicate ochreous ; the body silky. 



The CATERPILLAR has been minutely 

 described and most carefully figured in 

 Boisduval's Collection des Chenilles; and I 

 can obtain no information respecting it from 

 any other source : it rests on a blade of grass 

 in a perfectly straight position ; the head is 

 small, manifestly narrower than the second 

 segment; the body is nearly uniformly cylin- 

 drical from the fourth segment to the eleventh 

 but tapers at both extremities ; the colour of 

 the head is ferruginous-brown reticulated with 

 black ; of the body a very pale reddish browi ; 

 there are two narrow white stripes on each 

 side, and each of these stripes is slightly inter- 

 rupted at the incisions of the segments, and 

 also bordered on both sides with pale brown; 

 below these are the spiracles quite black, 

 and below the spiracles is a broader stripe 

 very pale, but not so nearly white as those 

 ah-eady described ; and below this is a pale 

 brown stripe which touches the legs and 

 claspers ; the ventral is paler than the dorsal 

 area, and the legs and claspers are concolorous 

 with the belly : the text describes the first 

 and last segments as having a reddish dorsal 

 plate, but the figure does not exhibit this 

 character. It is found during winter and at 

 the beginning of spring feeding on grasses, 

 and undergoes pupation in February, March, 

 and April, buried in the earth, but without 

 spinning a cocoon : the CHRYSALIS is of a dull 

 reddish-brown colour, and is furnished at the 

 caudal extremity with a number of small 

 hooks, two of which are larger than the others, 

 distant from each other and parallel. 



Two specimens only of this delicate insect 

 have been taken in England, both of them at 

 Brighton, by Mr. Thorncroft, who has kindly 

 presented one to my collection with the view 

 of offering all entomologists the opportunity 

 of examining it. (The scientific name is 

 Lfucania vitellina.) 



440. The Double-line (Lcucania twrca). 



440. THE DOUBLE-LINE. The antennae are 

 very slightly pubescent in the male, simple in 

 the female : the fore wings are dull brick- 

 dust red with two transverse dark brown lines : 

 the first is slightly waved, but its direction is 

 nearly straight; the second is oblique and 

 slightly waved near the inner margin; the 

 orbicular spot is wanting ; the reniform spot 

 is narrow, crescentic and whitish : the hind 

 wings are brown in the disk, reddish round 

 the margins : the head and thorax are of the 

 same colour as the fore wings, the body of 

 grayish brown, more or less Inclining to brick- 

 dust red. 



Guenee says that the CATERPILLAR is of 

 a yellowish gray colour, with a slender whitish 

 medio-dorsal stripe, and a lateral stripe in the 

 region of the spiracles which divides the 

 caterpillar into two colours, the whole of the 

 ventral being decidedly paler than the dorsal 

 area ; there is also a very imperfect series of 

 dorsal lozenges, which are brighter on each 

 side : the head is pale, horny, shining, and 

 unspotted; the spiracles are very obvious, 

 each has a black circumscription : the legs are 

 of the same colour as the body. It feeds in 

 February and March on the grasses which 

 grow in woods, more particularly on the spring 

 wood-rush (Luzula vernalis), a species which 

 does not occur under that name in the British 

 flora. In Britain, Luzula pilosa and L. cam- 

 pestris, two very common species of wood-rush, 

 are likely to be its food-plants. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June, ana 

 has been taken principally on our south coast, 

 as at Folkestone, Rye, Worthing, Lewes, 

 Brighton, and in the New Forest of Hamp- 

 shire. It occurs at Epping, but is rare ; it 

 was formerly abundant in Hainault Forest 

 (The scientific name is Leucania turca,} 



