NOCTUAS. 



289 



483. The Feathered Brindle (Aporophylaaustralis). 



483. THE FEATHERED BRINDLE. The palpi 

 are short but porrected, scarcely curved ; the 

 antennae of the male are stout and pectinated, 

 the pectinations being very short, those of 

 the female are simple : the fore wings are 

 rather narrow, nearly straight on the costa, 

 blunt at the tip, and somewhat scalloped on 

 the hind margin ; their colour is pale gray, 

 with a cloud of brown-gray about the middle 

 of the costa and extending round the reni- 

 form spot, which it includes ; the reniform 

 is of the usual form and clearly defined; 

 the orbicular is oblique and oblong ; at the 

 base of the wing, about its middle, is a black 

 streak, extending about a fifth of the length 

 of the wing; on the inner margin near its 

 base is a small but conspicuous linear blotch ; 

 on the costa beyond the middle are four small 

 white spots ; beyond the middle of the wing 

 there is a zigzag and sharply angled black 

 line, and between these and the base of the 

 wing there are several other black lines 

 angled and variously inclined ; the hind-mar- 

 ginal area has the wing-rays black, and being 

 on a pale gray ground they are very conspi- 

 cuous ; the black ceases before the transverse 

 zigzag line ; in each interspace between the 

 black wing-rays is an elongate club-shaped 

 black spot, which emanates from a small but 

 very distinct black crescent, situated on the 

 margin ; the fringe is long, its outline waved, 

 its colour gray-brown, interrupted by a few 

 long white scales issuing from the end of each 

 wing-ray . the hind wings are white in the 

 male, with grav-V><~'w- **- g-rays, and a mar- 



ginal series of linear marks of the same colour, 

 and frequently with a slight hind-marginal 

 cloud in the female : in the female they are 

 dull brown, with a pale fringe; the hind 

 margin of the hind wings is indistinctly scal- 

 loped : the head is gray -brown with a black 

 transverse line behind the collar ; on each side 

 of the thorax is a white patch, and at the 

 middle of the posterior border is a black spot : 

 the body is gray-brown, the basal segment 

 having some longer scales, more especially 

 observable in the male ; the sides are fringed 

 with similar scales. 



Guenee describes the CATERPILLAR as cylin- 

 drical and smooth, and as having the dorsal 

 area yellowish-red with a paler medio-dorsal 

 stripe ; the spiracular line is shaded with 

 brown dots, and bordered on its upper side 

 with black streaks : there is a short black 

 mark originating in the " anterior incision," 

 and resting on an oval brown blotch, whici* 

 occupies the entire width of the segment ; the 

 head is testaceous-red, reticulated with a 

 darker tint, and having a darker streak ; the 

 ventral area is greenish-yellow. In France it 

 feeds on the endive (Cichorium), smdAsphodelut 

 microca/rpus, not recorded as a British plant. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in August. 

 It was first taken at Yarmouth in Norfolk, 

 and was described and figured by Mr. Curtia 

 under the name of Agrotis pascuea, but Mr. 

 Doubleday took one of the specimens to Paris*, 

 and found that it was the Australia of Bois- 

 duval ; it has since been taken in Devonshire, 

 Dorsetshire, Isle of Wight, Sussex, and Kent, 

 but I believe nowhere north of these counties; 

 neither is it recorded from Scotland or Ire- 

 land. (The scientific name is Aporophyla 

 austrolis.) 



484. The Smal'-cuottled Willow (Laphygma exigucf). 



484. THE SMALL-MOTTLED WILLOW. The 

 palpi are very inconspicuous ; they are curved 



M 19 



