392 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



Mr. Gregson having watched a female of 

 this moth depositing her eggs on the flowers 

 of the bladder campion (Silene inflata), in 

 the Isle of Man, gathered the flowers, and 

 has succeeded in obtaining caterpillars, which, 

 being full-fed on the 6th of July, he has most 

 kindly transmitted to me for description. The 

 usual position of the caterpillar is with the 

 head and anterior extremity of the body con- 

 cealed within the capsule or inflated calyx, 

 and the anal claspers tenaciously holding the 

 slender footstalk of the flower. The head is of 

 nearly the same width as the second segment, 

 somewhat glabrous, and emits about twenty 

 minute bristle-like hairs : the body is almost 

 uniformly cylindrical and velvety ; it has a few 

 short and slender bristle-like hairs along each 

 side, but these are so few and inconspicuous as 

 only to be observed under a lens of considerable 

 power. The colour of the head is pale 

 wainscot-brown, slightly reticulated with 

 darker brown markings, in one specimen so 

 slightly as only to be observable under a lens ; 

 there is a blackish dot at the insertion of each 

 hair, and the ocelli are also dark : the body is 

 pale brown, and very minutely and densely 

 irrorated with umber-brown; these irrorations 

 are crowded in some parts, but more distant 

 in others, leaving a doubled longitudinal series 

 of irregular pale patches, which form two in- 

 distinct stripes ; the ventral surface, including 

 legs and claspers, is pale smoky-brown slightly 

 tinged with pink. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June, and 

 has been taken somewhat abundantly in the 

 Isle of Man, and a single specimen in Ireland. 

 (The scientiBc name is Diantluxcia ccesia.) 



622. Thp Small Ranunculus ( Hecatera dysodea) . 



622. THE SMALL RANUNCULUS. The palpi 

 project very slightly, their terminal joint is 

 imperceptible ; the antennae are very slightly 

 ciliated in the male, quite simple in the 

 female : the fore wings have the costal margin 



very straight, the tip blunt, the hind margin 

 slightly waved ; their colour is smoky-gray, 

 mottled with both darker and lighter markings, 

 and having a rather darker median band, not 

 very clearly defined, and in which are situated 

 the discoidal spots, which are also indistinct ; 

 each wing is adorned with numerous orange 

 spots, six or seven of which form a transverse 

 series parallel with the hind margin ; there is 

 one on each side of the reniform, one on the 

 outside of the orbicular, two at the base of 

 the wing, and two on the inner margin : the 

 hind wings are blackish-gray, with the basal 

 area and fringe paler, the wing-rays and dis- 

 coidal spots rather darker; there is also a 

 whitish longitudinal streak near the anal 

 angle : the antennae are testaceous, approach- 

 ing t o ochre-colour ; the head is gray ; the 

 thorax is gray, with two conspicuous approxi- 

 mate orange spots, rather behind the middle, 

 and two smaller and more distant orange 

 spots behind these ; the body is gray. 



The CATERPILLAR feeds on the blossoms and 

 seed of the common lettuce : it rests in a 

 straight position on its food-plant, but falls to 

 the ground when disturbed, and, tucking the 

 head under its body, embraces it with the 

 ventral claspers, the anal extremity, together 

 with the anal claspers, remaining extended ; 

 the head is glabrous, scarcely notched on the 

 crown, narrower than the second segment, into 

 which it is partially received : the body is 

 cylindrical, but slightly attenuated towards 

 both extremities; the anal claspers are spread- 

 ing ; the colour of the head is pale dull olive- 

 green, inconspicuously reticulated with darker 

 lines : the body is pale dxill olive-green, 

 sometimes exhibiting a shade of gamboge- 

 yellow; the dorsal and ventral areas are 

 abruptly divided on a level with the spiracles, 

 which are intensely black ; the dorsal is slightly 

 darker than the ventral area, and having also 

 three darker, but nevertheless very incon- 

 spicuous, stripes; one of these is medio-dorsal, 

 and intersected throughout by a slender paler 

 stripe ; the others are lateral and immediately 

 above the spiracles : the legs and claspers are 

 concolorous with the ventral area When full- 

 fed it descends to the ground, and changes to a 



