NOCTUAS. 



435 



the segments is green : the figure in Bois- 

 duval's " Collection des Chenilles " has a 

 purple-brown back interrupted by eight 

 whitish dots on each segment, and three or 

 more oblique white lines ; there appears to be 

 rather an unusual number of bristle-like 

 hairs : the ventral surface is green with many 

 longitudinal streaks ; it is found from July to 

 the end cf September feeding on the common 

 wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium), and its 

 mixed colours so exactly correspond with 

 those of the blossoms that it is extremely 

 difficult to detect except after rain, when the 

 plant assumes a more vivid green, which 

 contrasts with the colour of the caterpillar. 

 When full-fed it constructs a tough oval 

 cocoon of mixed silk and earth, and in this 

 changes to a CHRYSALIS of a yellowish-green 

 colour, with a brown case inclosing the legs. 



The MOTH, according to Boisduval, appears 

 in June and September, according to Guenee 

 and Mr. Reading, in July. In this country it 

 seems confined to the southern counties of 

 England, particularly Cornwall. Mr. Reading 

 says : " For this rare and very distinct insect 

 there are in Cornwall and Devon three widely 

 separated districts in which it is found. In 

 1855-6 the caterpillar was found near Wem- 

 bury feeding on wormwood ; Dr. Cocks 

 records it as occurring at Falmouth ; and Mr. 

 Dorville, by cultivating the food-plant, has 

 been able to procure the insect nt Alphington, 

 near Exeter." Mr. Dalo has taken it in Dor- 

 setshire, and Mr. Harpur Crewe in Berkshire. 

 (The scientific name is Cucullia Absynthii.) 



674. The Chamomile Shark (Cucullia Chamomillce). 



674. THE CHAMOMILE SHARK. The palpi 

 form a conspicuous tuft beneath the head, and 

 fiomthia the tips of the terminal joints slightly 



project ; the antennae are simple in both sexes ; 

 the wings are narrow, nearly straight on the 

 costa, but curved and pointed at the tip ; their 

 colour is smoky-gray, with a very sharply- 

 defined but slender line from the base to the 

 middle of the wing ; the wing-rays are also 

 dark, and opposite the extremity of each is a 

 corresponding black line in the fringe : the 

 hind wings are gray -brown with paler base 

 and darker wing-rays ; the head, thorax, and 

 body are gray, the thorax having a sharp keel- 

 like crest in some specimens porrccted over 

 the head ; the body has three smaller crests 

 each tipped with darker brown. 



The EGG is laid at the end of April or 

 beginning of May, on the stems of the wild 

 chamomile or feverfew (Anihemis Cotula) : 

 the young CATERPILLAR emerges at the end of 

 May or during the first week in June : when 

 first hatched it is light green, and is generally 

 to be found coiled round the unexpanded 

 flower-bud ; it grows with great rapidity, and 

 scarcely three weeks elapse from its being 

 found in this diminutive state to its acquiring 

 its full size, which is generally at the end of 

 June, although stragglers may be occasionally 

 found as late as the third week in July ; from 

 the 12th to the 20th of June may, however, 

 be regai-ded as the best season for collecting 

 these caterpillars : they are extremely partial 

 to waste places, such as shipwrights' yards and 

 amongst old timber, and are very local, often 

 occurring abundantly in one spot, and being 

 entirely absent from another apparently simi- 

 lar. They do not hide during the day, as is 

 so frequently the case with the larvse of Noc- 

 tuas, but bask in the sunshine, and continue 

 feeding, more especially on the flowers of their 

 food-plant, amongst which they make great 

 havoc. When full-fed the head is rather 

 narrower than the second segment ; the body 

 is uniformly cylindrical and somewhat shining; 

 the twelfth segment has its dorsal surface 

 prominent, yet scarcely elevated above the 

 plane of the back : the colour both of head 

 and body is either pale olive-green or pale 

 pinkish-brown ; in either case the body ir; 

 adorned with six nearly equidistant wr.vec" 

 stripes of the same colour, but of a darkei 



