353 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



falls to the ground when annoyed ; the head 

 is small but exserted ; it is narrower than the 

 second segment, but is never received into 

 it ; the body is velvety and obese ; it is rather 

 attenuated at the anterior extremity; the 

 colour of the head prior to the last moult is 

 dull brown, with a paler reticulated line down 

 the middle of the face, and another on each 

 cheek; the body is umber-brown of two 

 shades, which form bands across the back, the 

 paler bands being at the interstices of the 

 segments; the entire surface is delicately 

 reticulated ; there is a short white or yellow 

 linear mark on each side of each segment; 

 this is always in the dark bands, and above 

 each of these marks are two round white dots ; 

 there is a continuous bright yellow stripe just 

 below the spiracles, which are black, and 

 which touch and seem to rest on this yellow 

 stripe ; the colour of the spiracles is always 

 black ; the ventral is rather paler than the 

 dorsal area, and the legs and claspers are of 

 the same colour. After the last moult con- 

 siderable change takes place in the colouring ; 

 the bright yellow stripe in the region of the 

 spiracles disappears, and its position is only to 

 be traced by searching with a lens along the 

 side, when a very indistinct stripe will be 

 found just below the spiracles, except on the 

 second segment close to the head, where an 

 ochreous-yellow line clearly marks the site 

 where the bright yellow stripe commenced ; 

 the white or yellow linear spots on each side 

 of the back remain very distinct ; and in the 

 space between each of these is a circular white 

 spot ; immediately above it is of an intensely 

 dark velvety brown, almost black ; the ground 

 colour below each linear spot is also very 

 dark, so that these markings are rendered 

 very conspicuous ; the dark colour of the back 

 assumes somewhat the appearance of a series 

 of inverted pyramids, the apices of which 

 point towards the anal extremity. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in March 

 aud April, frequenting the catkins of the 

 sallow : it is very generally distributed in 

 England, and has been taken rather abun- 

 dantly in Scotland. Mr. Birchall reports it 

 from the county Wicklow, in Ireland, on the 



authority of Mr. Bristow. (The scientific 

 name is Tceniocampa rubricosa.) 



576. The Clouded Drab (Tceniocampa instabUis). 



576. THE CLOUDED DRAB. The palpi are 

 very inconspicuous ; the antennae slightly 

 serrated in the male, quite simple in the 

 female : the wings are very different in colour 

 and markings, the ground colour varying to 

 almost every shade of ferruginous brown and 

 gray-brown, sometimes plain and almost uni- 

 colorous. at others mottled and marbled ; the 

 discoidal spots are usually entire, their cir- 

 cumscription clearly denned in pale gray, 

 almost white ; and there is also usually a very 

 distinct pale line parallel with the hind mar- 

 gin ; this is slightly irregular, scarcely so 

 much so as to be called zigzag : the costal 

 margin is usually paler, and interrupted 



