NOCTUAS. 



327 



The MOTH appears in June, and continues on 

 the wing throughout the summer. It is com- 

 mon everywhere. (The scientific name is 

 Agrotis exclamationis.) 



Obs. 1. I have followed my usual plan of 

 describing the caterpillar of this most destruc- 

 tive insect without comparing it with that of 

 the closely-allied Agrotis Segetum, and have 

 brought out certain characters in each descrip- 

 tion not mentioned in the other ; but there is 

 so great a difficulty in distinguishing the two 

 species when in the caterpillar state, that I 

 have often found the moths of both emerge 

 from the same turnip, when I supposed it con- 

 tained only the caterpillar of one. 



Obs. 2. The male of this species is the 

 Heart and Dart (Noctua exclamationis) of 

 Haworth (Lep. Brit., No. 169), and the female 

 the Pitchy Dart (Noctua picea, Lep. Brit., 

 No. 170). 



Obs. 3 Owing to an inadvertence, the 

 ordinary form of this abundant moth has not 

 been figured ; the varieties represented have 

 been kindly lent for this work by Mr. Bond 

 and Mr. C. Fenn : the spots are usually more 

 sepai-ate and distinct. 



530. The Heart and Club {Agrotis corticea) . Males. 



530. The Heart and Clnb (Agrotis corticea). Females. 



530. THE HEART AND CLUB. The antennae 

 are decidedly ciliated in the male, simple in 

 the female : the costal margin of the fore 

 wings is straight, the tip blunt, their coloiir is 

 smoky gray-brown, with darker blotches and 

 numerous minute transverse lines ; the princi- 

 pal blotches are two ; the first seems to com- 

 bine and include the claviform and orbicular, 

 the second the reniform spot ; a slender but 

 double transverse line adjoins the first of these 

 on the side nearest the base, and a similar 

 double line adjoins the second blotch on the 

 side nearest the hind margin : the costal 

 margin is spotted with pale and dark ; short 

 and slender dark lines and dots are scattered 

 or sprinkled over the entire surface of the 

 wings ; in some specimens these are rather 

 crowded, in others distant from each other : 

 the hind wings are pale gray-brown with a 

 very inconspicuous crescentic discoidal spot : 

 the head and thorax are very much the same 

 colour as the fore wings ; the body the same 

 colour as the hind wings. 



M. Guenee says that he has often met with 

 the CATERPILLAR of this species, but has un- 

 fortunately neglected to describe it. I am 

 still more unfortunate in never having seen 

 the caterpillar. 



The MOTH appears on the wing at the end 

 of June and beginning of July, and often 

 swarms at the blossoms of the lime, a tree 

 that offers a banquet to bees by day, and to 

 moths by night. It seems very generally 



