436 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



shade : these waved stripes are invariably 

 bordered throughout by a delicate waved 

 marginal line of a still darker hue, and are 

 also intersected on each segment by a trans- 

 verse interrupted band, in which reddish-pink 

 is the predominant colour : the ventral sur- 

 face, legs, and claspers are less variegated, 

 having a dull homogeneous tint of obscure 

 pink and green. When full-fed the cater- 

 pillar buries itself very deep in the earth or 

 rubbish, and forms a tough cocoon, in which 

 particles of earth or sand, or even fragments 

 of leaves or little sticks, are intermixed and 

 interwoven : sometimes when a considerable 

 number of these caterpillars have been con- 

 fined together, they will bury themselves in 

 company, and their cocoons will be connected 

 together, adhering after the fashion of a bunch 

 of grapes. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in April and 

 May ; it is generally but not plentifully dis- 

 tributed in our English and Irish counties. 

 Mr. Reading says : "The caterpillar in Corn- 

 wall and Devonshire is found abundantly on 

 Pyrethrum inodorum and maritimum, but not 

 on Anthemis or Matricaria." (The scientific 

 name is CucuLlia Chamomillce.) 



675. The Shark (Oucullia umbratica). 



675. THE SHARK. The palpi form a con- 

 spicuous tuft beneath the head, the tips of 

 the terminal joints being scarcely perceptible ; 

 the antennae are simple in both sexes : the 

 fore wings are narrow, nearly straight on the 

 costa, but slightly arched towards the tip; 

 their colour is smoky-gray with a slender but 

 very distinct black line from the middle of the 

 base to the middle of the wing ; the wing- 

 rays are also black, but I find that tl^ 4 rk 



colour is not continued into the fringe : the 

 hind wings are smoky-gray, with the wing- 

 rays darker and the base paler : the head is 

 smoky-black, the thorax is gray and crested, 

 the body is smoky-gray and scarcely crested. 



The EGG is laid on the leaves of lettuce 

 (Lactitca virosa), and on several species of 

 sowthistle (Sonchus arvensis, S. oleraeeus, and 

 S. palustris), in June and July, and the CATER- 

 PILLAR, which emerges in July, devours the 

 leaves of these species, as well as those of the 

 garden lettuce, sometimes doing great injury 

 to the latter : it eats only by night, and 

 secretes itself by day under those lower leaves 

 which lie prostrate on the ground, or are so 

 bent over as to afford perfect concealment. 

 "When full-fed it may be readily found in this 

 situation, reposing in a straight position on 

 the under surface of a leaf, with its back 

 downwards ; when annoyed it falls from its 

 food-plant, and twists its head right and left 

 in an angry manner, sometimes stretching it 

 out in a leech-like fashion ; but I have not 

 observed it feign death or roll in a ring. The 

 head is considerably narrower than the body : 

 the body is cylindrical, and of nearly uniform 

 size throughout, the dorsal surface being trans- 

 versely wrinkled and delicately shagreened. 

 The colour of the head is black, but not shin- 

 ing ; the body dark brown or nearly black, 

 delicately reticulated with pale smoke-colour, 

 the reticulations being depressed, the darker 

 warts raised ; the dorsal surface of the second 

 segment is darker than the rest, and its mar- 

 gin is adorned with seven orange spots, which 

 appear somewhat as the anterior extremities 

 of stripes which have become almost obsolete, 

 but are to be traced along the back and in the 

 region of the spiracles, and three of which 

 appear conspicuously on the twelfth segment, 

 and converge at the extremity of the anal flap ; 

 the ventral surface is paler than the dorsal ; 

 the legs are black and shining ; the claspers 

 black at the base and white at the extremities, 

 their hooks black. The CHRYSALIS is subter- 

 ranean. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June, and 

 may frequently be observed resting on park 

 palings, which it exactly resembles in colour. 



