402 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



under my care is from the late Mr. Ha worth's 

 cabinet. 



632. The Green-brindled Crescent (Miselia 



Oxyaca/nthce) . 



632. THE GREEN-BRINDLED CRESCENT. 

 palpi are densely scaly at the base, the ter- 

 minal joint slender and pointed ; the antennae 

 are slightly thickened in the male, simple in 

 the female : the fore wings are rather arched, 

 their hind margin rather scalloped, their 

 colour dull-brown, somewhat inclining to 

 reddish-brown, marbled and sprinkled with 

 metallic-green scales ; the discoidal spots are 

 denned, but so nearly of the same colour as 

 the general area as to be inconspicuous ; 

 the reniform is placed longitudinally; at the 

 base of the wing is a black longitudinal streak, 

 which passes through a black transverse line, 

 and then ceases; parallel with the hind mar- 

 gin is a broadish pale band, and the interior 

 border of this is accompanied by a delicate 

 waved white line, which expands into a con- 

 spicuous white mark before it reaches the 

 inner margin : in a variety of frequent occur- 

 rence, which I have represented in the lower 

 figure, the fore wings are of a nearly uniform 

 dark-brown colour, the white mark being thus 

 rendered very conspicuous : this is called 

 the "dark crescent" by Haworth; the hind 

 wings are smoky-gray : the head and thorax 

 are gray-brown; the body of nearly the same 

 colour, and crested, the crests being darker. 



Ine CATERPILLAR neither feigns death nor 

 roiis in a ring when disturbed ; the head is 



exserted, rather wider than the second seg- 

 ment, and slightly notched on the crown ; the 

 body is cylindrical, and exhibits the divisions 

 of the segments plainly ; the twelfth segment 

 is elevated, but scarcely-humped dorsally ; it 

 bears two pairs of small warts, the posterior 

 pair rather larger and rather wider apart than 

 the anterior pair : the colour of the dorsal 

 surface is either brownish-gray or red-brown, 

 very dull, and has four white dots on each 

 segment; the medio-dorsal and lateral stripes 

 are scarcely perceptible ; the ventral sxirface 

 is gray-green, with a conspicuous medio- 

 ventral dark stripe ; the legs and claspers are 

 green : itfeeds on black-thorn (Prunusspinoaa), 

 whitethoYn^ratfegusoxyacantha), and is full- 

 fed at the end of May, when it spins a thick 

 cocoon on the surface of the earth, in which it 

 changes to a CHRYSALIS : the eyes of the 

 chrysalis shine very brightly for the last 

 fourteen days of its remaining in that state. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in Septem- 

 ber, and is of very frequent occurrence in 

 England, Scotland, and Ireland. (The 

 scientific name is Miselia Oxyacanthce.) 



633. The Marvel-du-Joor (Agriopis Aprilina). 



633. THE MARVEL-DU- JOUR. The palpi are 

 pointed at the tips; the antennae simple, but 

 rather stouter in the male ; the fore wings are 

 pale green, ornamented with black and white 

 markings, the black markings often forming 

 something like a median band ; the discoiaal 



