NOCTUAS. 



291 



short, very crooked, and sharply angled, is 

 almost close to the base ; the second, which is 

 curved, precedes the orbicular ; the third is 

 much bent and situated outside the reniform ; 

 the fourth is irregular but very distinct and 

 parallel with the hind margin ; the interior 

 border of this last emits a series of black 

 wedge-shaped spots, the tips of which point 

 towards the middle of the wing ; on the mar- 

 gin itself are seven black lunules with pale 

 interior borders ; the fringe is of two colours, 

 pale inside, dark brown outside ; the decided 

 charater of the markings give the fore wings 

 a very beautiful appearance : the hind wings 

 are dingy-brown, approaching to gray at the 

 base, and having a crescentic discoidal spot 

 and a broad but ill-defined marginal band 

 darker ; the rays passing through this band 

 are very dark, and there is a marginal series 

 of crescentic dark lines : the head and thorax 

 are variegated with the two colours jf the 

 fore wings ; the body is gray-brown. 



Guenee describes the CATERPILLAR as short, 

 stout, cylindrical, and smooth: it has :. 

 corneous plate on the second and twelfth 

 segments ; the head is moderately large, sphe- 

 rical, and dull in colour ; the body is grayish- 

 yellow or reddish (green when young), dis- 

 tinctly striated with brown, and having a 

 medio-dorsal stripe slightly paler : the spira- 

 cular stripe and the ventral surface are pale 

 gray without marking : the head and corneous 

 plates are brown. It feeds on low plants, and 

 particularly on the species of catchfly (SUene), 

 and when full-fed turns to a CHRYSALIS beneath 

 the surface of the ground. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July, and 

 has been taken occasionally in most of the 

 English counties south of Yorkshire. (The 

 scientific name is Neurla Saponarice.} 



Obs. Saponarice is a moth of great beauty : 

 its markings are very similar to those of 

 Popula/fis ; but the very distinct pale trans- 

 verse lines which add so greatly to the beauty 

 of Saponarice are wanting in Popularis, and 

 this difference serves at once to distinguish 

 the two. 



486. The Feathered Gothic (HeUophobuspopularis). 



486. THE FEATHERED GOTHIC. The palpi 

 are porrected and scarcely curved, the ter- 

 minal joint is slender and naked; the an- 

 tennae are strongly pectinated in the male, 

 qiute simple in the female ; the eyes are very 

 hairy ; the maxillae are slender, short, and 

 altogether insignificant : the four wings are 

 straight on the costa, blunt at the tip, and 

 waved on the hind margin ; their colour is 

 brown, with very pale wing-rays ; the dis- 

 coidal spots are very distinct ; the orbicular 

 is strongly outlined with pale wainscot-brown ; 

 the reniform is also strongly outlined, and is 

 intersected by the white curved ray which 

 closes the median cell ; two double trans- 

 verse lines of a very dark colour cross the 

 wing, one of them before the orbicular, the 

 other beyond the reniform ; both of these are 

 intercepted by the pale wing-ray ; parallel 

 with the hind margins a series of eight pale 

 crescents ; and on the hind margin itself is a 

 series of very dark, almost black, crescentic 

 lines ; in the interspaces between the parallel 

 wing-rays is a double series of dark brown 

 spots, the interior series wedge-shaped, fch Q 

 exterior nearly round ; they are separated by 

 the intervention of the pale crescents already 

 noticed : the hind-wings are brown-gray, 

 paler at the base, with a crescentic discoidal 

 spot and a pale fringe ; the thorax is brown, 

 with paler and darker lines, both on the 

 front and sides ; the body, which is very 

 stout in the female, is ringed with two shades 

 of brown. 



Guenee describes the CATERPILLAR as obese, 

 smooth, and almost cylindrical, but attenuated 

 at both extremities, and having a spherical 

 head ; the colour of the bead is gray, with 



