NOCTUAS. 



881 



608. Tho Heart Moth (Dicycla Oo). 



608. THE HEART MOTH. The palpi are 

 curved upwards, the terminal joint being 

 mall and pointed ; the antennse are slightly 

 ciliated : the fore wings are ample, straight 

 on the costa, and blunt at the tip ; their 

 colour is pale ochreous-gray, with darker 

 markings ; there are two orbicular and one 

 reniform discoidal spot; the twoorbiculars are 

 placed transversely, that is, one below the 

 other, the lower one is flattened ; all three 

 are clearly defined in outline; there are five 

 transverse lines, the first very short and near 

 the base ; the second zigzag and before the 

 orbicular ; the third is near the middle of the 

 wing, is interrupted by the reniform, and is 

 much bent; the fourth is beyond the reniform, 

 and is also much bent; and the fifth is near 

 the hind margin, and parallel therewith ; the 

 hind margin itself is delicately margined with 

 the same darker colour, and the parallel wing- 

 rays being also of that colour, the wing has 

 a veiy elegant reticulated appearance; there 

 is a smoky cloud near the base, half-way be- 

 tween the costal and inner margin : the hind 

 wings are delicately pale, almost white : the 

 head is almost white; the thorax ochreous- 

 gray; the body is paler, and in the female 

 terminates in a very sharp-pointed ovipositor. 



The CATERPILLAR is described by Guenee as 

 having a large head and a smooth, elongate, 

 and rather depressed body, of a blackish-brown 

 or reddish-brown colour, with a medio-dorsal, 

 sub-dorsal, and lateral stripe pure white; the 

 medio-dorsal is narrowest in the middle of 

 each segment ; the lateral stripe is tinged with 

 brimstone-yellow, and is intersected by a black 

 streak near each spiracle; the spiracles them- 

 selves are encircled with brown : it feeds on 

 the young unexpanded leaves of the oak 

 (Quercus Robur), which it spins together at the 

 extremity of the twigs, a>nd thu '^rms a 



dwelling-place, which it only leaves to under- 

 go its transformation to a CHRYSALIS, which is 

 enclosed in an oval cocoon on the surface of 

 the earth. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July, and 

 has occurred in the New Forest, Hampshire, in 

 Kent, Essex, Cambridgeshire, and Wiltshire. 

 (The scientific name is Dicycla Oo.) 



609. The Dun-bar (Cosmia trapezina). 



609. THE DUN-BAR. The palpi are por- 

 rected, curved upwards, and approximating, 

 the terminal joint being pointed; the antennse 

 are simple: the fore wings are ample, the 

 costal margin slightly arched, the tip pointed, 

 but not acutely so ; their colour is various : 

 pale gray, bright rust - colour, and dingy 

 brown are the commoner colours, but there is 

 almost every intermediate shade between 

 them; the discoidal spots are generally dis- 

 tinctly outlined, and the lower portion of the 

 median area in the reniform is usually occu- 

 pied by a dark spot; there are three trans- 

 verse dark lines, the first short and near the 

 base ; the second very oblique, and having a 

 white or very pale interior border; the third 

 much bent, and having a white or very pale 

 exterior border; beyond this, and parallel 

 with the hind margin, is a pale line with a 

 series of rather coarse dark spots on its interior 

 border, and terminating on the costa in a dark 

 shade : the hind wings are gray-brown, -vrith 

 a pale fringe ; the head and thorax are of the 

 same colour as the fore wings; the body of 



