JXOCTUAS. 



433 



671. The Star-wort (Cucullia, Ast&ris). 



671. THE STAR-WORT. The palpi form an 

 obtuse tuft in front of the head, and the 

 terminal joint seems emerging from the 

 surrounding scales ; the antennae ai'e perfectly 

 simple in both sexes : the fore wings are 

 narrow and nearly straight along the costa, 

 but gradually arched towards the tip, which 

 is blunt ; the hind margin is entire ; their 

 colour is umber-brown on the costal margin, 

 gradually shading to slate-colour towards the 

 middle of the wing ; there is an indistinct 

 indication of both discoidal spots ; the inner 

 margin is dark brown, this colour being very 

 narrow from the base to beyond the middle, 

 then expanding and containing a distinct 

 whitish crescent : the hind wings are gray- 

 brown with paler fringe : the head, thorax, 

 and body are slaty gray-brown with a rather 

 darker but not very distinct medio-dorsal 

 stripe. 



The CATERPILLAR has a rather small and 

 somewhat triangular head, and a long cylin- 

 drical body, attenuated towards both extre- 

 mities, very different from that of those obese 

 caterpillars I have been describing ; the colour 

 of the head is pale or glaucous-green, the 

 prevailing colour of the body is olive-green 

 with a narrow medio-dorsal stripe bright 

 yellow ; then follow on each side two narrow 

 bluish stripes, and lastly, in the region of the 

 spiracles another stripe, which is sometimes 

 partly yellow and partly white, and sometimes 

 entirely yellow ; the spiracles are yellow deli- 

 cately margined with black : it feeds on the 

 golden rod (Solidago Virgaurea), on the sea 

 star-wort (Aster Tripolium), and on China 

 asters in gardens. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June : it 

 10 common at Darenth wood, and in Tilgate 



forest, and has occurred at Brighton and 

 Lewes, and occasionally at West Wickham, 

 (The scientific name is Cv#ullia Asteris.) 



672. The Cudweed (Cucullia GnaphaUt). 



672. THE CUDWEED. The palpi are in- 

 conspicuous, the tip only of the terminal 

 joint appearing in front of the head : the 

 antennae are simple in both sexes : the fore 

 wings are rather narrow, the costa straight 

 for three-quarters of its length, and then bent 

 towards the tip, which is pointed; their 

 colour is grayish-ash, with the median area 

 brownish ; this colour forms a kind of median 

 band in some specimens, but in others a cloudy 

 ash-colour pervades the whole wing ; the 

 discoidal spots are defined but of irregular 

 form; the orbicular has a slender black cir- 

 cumscription ; the reniform is of irregular 

 form and colour, and its median area is divided 

 into five, six, or even seven compartments ; 

 in the dark suffused specimens there is a 

 defined and acutely-angled white mark between 

 the reniform and the inner margin : the hind 

 wings are smoky -brown, inclining to testaceous- 

 brown at the base, the wing-rays being darker 

 and the fringe paler : the head and thorax are 

 gray-brown, the latter somewhat crested ; the 

 body is brown with a darker medio-dorsal 

 stripe, which forms a crest on the first, second, 

 and third segments. 



I am indebted to Boisduval's beautiful 

 " Collection des Chenilles " for the following 

 particulars of the CATERPILLAR, which I have 

 never seen. It lives singly on the golden rod 

 (Solidago Virgaurea), throughout the month of 

 July and in the beginning of August, and 

 rests with its belly closely appressed to a twig 

 of that plant, with its head downwards, and 

 sometimes even resting on another plant ; in 



