NOCTUAS. 



429 



665. The Gray Shoulder-knot (Xylina rhizolitha). 



665. THE GRAY SHOULDER -KNOT. The 

 palpi ar straight and porrected, the terminal 

 joint rather long and almost square at the 

 extremity; the antennae are nearly simple in 

 both sexes ; the frontal tuft at their base is 

 four-lobed, the lobes forming a kind of square, 

 two of which are above and two below the 

 insertion of the antennae : the fore wings are 

 lone: and narrow, both the costal and inner 

 margins are straight and almost parallel with 

 each other ; their colour is gray with a few 

 darker markings; there is a short curved 

 black line at the base, which is bifid at the 

 extremity ; and it has moreover a very short 

 branch on the lower side half way between 

 the base and the bifurcation ; the two dis- 

 coid al spots are indicated, but often rather 

 obscurely ; there is a series of eight or nine 

 oblique dark spots on the costa, and another 

 series of seven or eight black dots on the hind 

 margin : the hind wings are dull ochreous- 

 gray : the head and thorax are whitish-gray ; 

 the thorax is very square ; the body brown- 

 ish-gray and very flat. 



The head of the CATERPILLAR is almost 

 exactly the same width as the second segment ; 

 it is obtusely triangular and not conspicuously 

 notched on the crown ; the body is uniformly 

 cylindrical, the divisions of the segments 

 rather indistinctly marked, and the whole 

 surface emitting scattered hairs : the colour of 

 l>oth the head and body is a pale glaucous- 

 green, the body having five narrow stripes of 

 a dingy-white colour, and between each two 

 of these stripes is a series of wart-like dots of 

 the same dingy-white colour and each emitting 

 a bristle. The spiracles are very small and 

 inconspicuous, they are white in black rings : 

 the ventral is paler than the dorsal surface, it 



has a tinge of glaucous but very nearly ap- 

 proaches the same dingy-white which charac- 

 terises the stripes of the dorsal surface. When 

 full-fed at the end of May, it descends to the 

 ground and then changes, amongst fallen leaves 

 or grass, to a reddish-brown CHRYSALIS, whichj 

 has two rather long hooked bristles at the anal 

 extremity. I have found nothing that can 

 with propriety be called a cocoon. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in October, 

 and in our southern counties is very commonly 

 found at rest in the day-time on park palings 

 and the trunks of trees ; it also comes to sugar 

 by night : it occurs in most of the English 

 counties, but is most abundant in the western 

 and south-western. Mr. Birchall says it is com- 

 mon at Killarney, and also occurs, although 

 more rarely, in the county Wick low, in Ireland. 

 (The scientific name is Xylina rhizolitha.) 



666. The Tawny Pinion (Xylina ismibrunned). 



666. THE TAWNY PINION. The palpi are 

 porrected and straight, the terminal joint is 

 rather long and naked ; the antennae are 

 almost simple in both sexes : the head has a 

 four-lobed tuft, the four lobes forming a square, 

 two being above and two below the insertion 

 of the antennae, and all being directed foi % - 

 wards ; the fore wings are straight and nar- 

 row, the hind margin slightly scalloped and 

 decidedly notched at the anal angle ; their 

 colour, as regards the costal half, is wainscot- 

 brown, longitudinally streaked with sepia- 

 brown, the inner marginal half being almost 

 entirely of ths darker colour : the hind wings 

 are gray-brown, the costal margin and fringe 

 inclining to red, and the wing-rays being 

 conspicuously darker ; the upper lobes of the 

 frontal tuft are sepia-brown ; the thorax has 

 three longitudinal crests or rather ridges, the 

 middle one partially projecting over the haed, 



