NOCTUAS. 



315 



ochreous ; the orbicular is very small and cir- 

 cular, the reniform is elongate ; both are dis- 

 tinct ; the costa is pale, with four conspicuous 

 and equidistant black spots, the last of which 

 is over the reniform ; there are several dai'k 

 transverse lines, all of them interrupted and 

 indistinct, and there is a dark bar on the hind 

 margin : the hind wings are whito, with 

 pale brown wing-rays and hind margin ; the 

 head, thorax, and body are of the same colour 

 M the fore wings. 



The CATERPILLAR has a shining head, rather 

 narrower than the second segment, into which 

 it can be partially withdrawn ; the body is 

 short and stout, slightly narrower towards the 

 extremities, and having a few hairs scattered 

 over all parts of the body, and each emanating 

 from a minute wart ; the colour of the head 

 is black ; there is a broad dorsal area of an 

 obscure greenish-gray colour, with a broad 

 lateral area smoky-gray : the ventral area is 

 paler, and the claspers are concolorous with 

 the ventral area. The EGGS seem to be laid on 

 various kinds of farinaceous and leguminous 

 crops, on which the young caterpillar feeds, 

 and, being very small at the time of harvest, 

 gets housed with the corn and pulse, and then 

 forms a little cubictilum among thestalksof the 

 corn in which to reside throughout the winter, 

 changing to a CHRYSALIS in May : in wheat 

 ricks they sometimes swarm to a fearful extent, 

 doing great injury ; but I was not aware that 

 they attacked also the field-peas, until T read 

 the following passage from the pen of Mr. 

 Buckler, in the ninth number of the Ento- 

 mologists' Monthly Magazine : "During the 

 past summer, some field- peas grown in this 

 neighbourhood were observed by the owner 

 and his men to be very much blighted, and 

 constantly visited by flocks of starlings, 

 especially just before they were harvested : 

 when the peas were taken into the barn, on 

 the 12th of December, to be threshed, an im- 

 mense number of the caterpillars of Caradrina 

 tubicularis, from half to full-grown, were dis- 

 lodged from the haulm. Having previously 

 only known this species to infest wheat-stacks, 

 and seeing these caterpillars to be rather 

 greener than usual, I resolved to rear some of 



them, in the hope of obtaining some varieties 

 of the moths ; and, accordingly, secured eighty 

 specimens, most of which are nearly full- 

 grown, and inhabit cocoons, formed of their 

 food, and fragments of peas and earth spun 

 together." 



The MOTH appeal's on the wing about mid- 

 summer, or rather earlier, and is common 

 throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland. 

 (The scientific name is Caradrina cubiculwis, 

 a name which the authors of the "Accentuated 

 List" attribute to its " belonging to a bed- 

 chamber ; occurring in out-houses." Is it not 

 more probable that the observant authors of 

 the " Vienna Catalogue" imposed this most 

 appropriate name in allusion to the familiar 

 habit of the caterpillar residing in a little 

 cubicvlum or lodging-room of its 

 struction 1) 



521. The Brown Rustic (Rusina t&nebrosa). 



521. THE BROWN RUSTIC. The palpi are 

 flattened, porrected, and ascending ; the an- 

 trnnse are pectinated in the male, simple, but 

 rather stout in the female : the fore wings are 

 rather ample, and square at the tip, their 

 colour is rich lustrous-brown, with two trans- 

 verse zigzag black lines, between which is a 

 transverse darker shade ; outside of this shade 

 the reniform is perceptible, but rather indis- 

 tinct ; it is slightly paler than the rest of the 

 wing ; the orbicular is scarcely to be traced ; 

 on the costa are five pale spots, the first and 

 second larger and more distinct than the other 

 three which are near the tip : the hind wings 

 are smoky-brown } ample, and with a sinuouu 

 outline : the head and thorax are umber- 

 brown ; the body smoky-brown. 



