318 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



thorax pale gray ; the body is pale dingy- 

 brown. 



Mr. Buckler has described the CATERPILLAR 

 in the Entomologists' Montldy Magazine for 

 February, 1868. Some EGGS, obtained by Mr. 

 Hellins, hatched on the 2nd of September, 

 1867, and the young caterpillars were placed 

 in a large pot with a quantity of sea sand, and 

 growing plants of dandelion and knot-grass, 

 leaves of lettuce and slices of carrot being 

 provided as food : the lettuce appeared to be 

 preferred. Most of the caterpillars obtained 

 their full growth about the end of the year 

 The head is then small, the body plump and 

 cylindrical, with a semicircular inflation in 

 the region of each spiracle ; the segmental 

 divisions deeply cut ; the legs and claspers 

 small in proportion. The colour of the back 

 is at first dark ochreous-brown, but changes 

 gradually with its growth to brownish-ochre- 

 ous or dull ochreous ; this tint is bounded on 

 either side by the dark brown edge of the 

 Bub-dorsal line ; there is a delicate mottling 

 of rather darker brown of a pear-shape on 

 each segment, its broad end in front, through 

 which runs the dorsal line, which is of the 

 brown colour (pale when the caterpillar is 

 quite full-grown), and is very thin at the 

 beginning, but expands almost into an elon- 

 gated diamond form at the end of each seg- 

 ment, and is distinctly edged with darker 

 brown, particularly at its widest part. The 

 sub-dorsal line is dark brown, having close 

 beneath it a mere thread of very pale green- 

 ish-gray ; and from this to the spiracles, the 

 sides are grayish-brown; another pale thread, 

 much interrupted, running a little above the 

 spiracles. Below the spiracles is a very faint 

 trace of a double dirty whitish line ; all the 

 rest of the lower and under surface being a 

 pale greenish-gray tint and semi-translucent. 

 The head is brown, the lobes and mouth 

 marked wifh darker brown, and very gla- 

 brous. There is a dark brown plate on the 

 second segment, having three pale longitudi- 

 nal lines. The spiracles are black, and the 

 tubercular warty dots very dark brown, each 

 furnished with a very minute short hair. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in August, 



and Is by no means abundant : the only speci- 

 mens I have ever taken were in my own 

 garden at Peckham ; indeed, it seems gene- 

 rally distributed round the metropolis. It 

 occurs at Brighton, Lewes, Dover, Cambridge, 

 Bristol, <fec., but not frequently in the north. 

 I do not recollect having seen it reported from 

 Scotland or Ireland. (The scientific name ia 

 Ay i otis puta. ) 



Obs. This is the Shuttle-shaped Dart 

 (Bombyx radius) of Ha worth (Lep. Brit., 

 ~No. 07), who described it as a novelty, but 

 it is now universally admitted to be the 

 Noctua puta of Hiibner. 



524. The Dark Sword-grass (Agrotis suffusa). 



524. THE DARK SWORD-GKASS. The an- 

 tennae are slightly ciliated in the male, simple 

 in the female : the fore wings have the costal 

 margin nearly straight, and the tip blunt; the 

 colour in the male is pale umber-brown, with a 

 dark umber-brown shade along the costal and 

 hind margins ; in the females the dark costal 

 shade extends to the inner margin, and occu- 

 pies two-thirds of the wing; there is a clearly- 

 defined dark brown linear mark resting on the 



