NOCTUAS. 



853 



slightly serrated in the male, quite simple in 

 the female : the colour of the fore wings is 

 grayish-brown, with a tinge of purple ; the 

 orbicular is outlined with pale gray, it is 

 rather oblique and somewhat reniform ; the 

 i eniform is very indistinct ; there is a short 

 and incomplete transverse line near the base, 

 a complete line before the orbicular, a trans- 

 verse shade before the reniform, a transverse 

 zigzag dark line beyond the reniform, and a 

 pale gray transverse line parallel with the 

 hind margin : the hind wings are gray-brown, 

 paler at the base, and exhibiting a trace of 

 the crescentic discoidal spot : the head, 

 thorax, and body are purplish-brown. 



The CATERPILLAR, according to Guenee, a 

 good deal resembles those of Cerastis Vaccinii 

 and C. erythrocephala ; it is of a violet or 

 vinous-gray colour, delicately marbled with 

 yellowish white, and having the medio-dorsal 

 and sub-dorsal stripes very conspicuous, but 

 broken up into spots of a dull ochreous-yellow 

 colour ; there is a side stripe in the region of 

 the spiracles, rather paler than the ground 

 colour, this is abruptly bounded on its upper 

 border, but on its lower border is fused with 

 the colour of the ventral area ; above this are 

 the spiracles, each situated in a very conspicu- 

 ous black dot : the bead and legs are concolor- 

 ous ; the caterpillar, in its younger stages, 

 very much resembles that of Noctua baja; it is 

 of a dark blackish-brown colour, and is marked 

 at each division of the segment with a white 

 spot : its food-plant is entirely unknown. 

 . The MOTH has been taken in July at 

 Rannoch, in Perthshire, but I know of no 

 other British locality. (The scientific name 

 is Noctua sobrina.) 



Obs. With regard to this and other rarities, 

 the attempt to collect them all with one's own 

 hand is quite hopeless : a perfect collection 

 can only be obtained by an extensive corre- 

 spondence with those of similar pursuits ; and 

 this can only be attained through the medium 

 of the Entomologist, where long lists of dupli- 

 cates are published every month for exchange 

 or gratuitous distribution. The Entomologist 

 is published by Messrs. Simpkin, Mai-shall, 

 if Co., at sixpence. 



569. The Gray Rustic (Noctua neglecta). 



569. THE GRAY RUSTIC. The palpi are 

 porrected, the second joint obliquely truncate, 

 the terminal joint small and naked, and not 

 extending so far as the scales of the second ; 

 the antennae are very slightly serrated in the 

 male, quite simple in the female : the colour 

 of the fore wings varies from ochreous-gray to 

 brickdust-red ; the circumscription of the dis- 

 coidal spots is most delicately outlined with 

 testaceous brown ; the median area of the 

 orbicular is concolorous with the general area 

 of the wing, but in the reniform it is smoky 

 at the lower extremity ; the other markings 

 are extremely indistinct : the hind wings are 

 gray-brown, pale at the base, and having a 

 paler fringe inclining to red ; the head and 

 thorax are of the same colour as the fore 

 wings, the body of the same colour as the 

 hind wings. 



The CATERPILLAR rolls in a ring and falls 

 off its food-plant, feigning death, when dis- 

 turbed. It crawls very actively, often moving 

 the anterior part of the body in the manner 

 of a leech. The head is rather small, and 

 shining ; the body uniformly cylindrical, and 

 velvety. The colour, including the head, ia 

 uniform dull bi'own or uniform pale green, in 

 both instances having a very slender and very 

 obscure pale medio-dorsal stripe, and a very 

 distinct broader white stripe on each side 

 immediately below the spiracles. The dorsal 

 region is thickly dotted or reticulated with a 

 darker colour. It feeds in the night-time ou 

 the common ling (Calluna vulga/ris), and 

 is full fed at the end of May; it then 



K 23 



