232 



BEITISH MOTHS. 



408. The Great Prominent (Notodonta trepida). 



408. THE GREAT PROMINENT. The an- 

 tennae are long, decidedly pectinated towards 

 the base in the male, but become almost 

 simple and hair-like towards the tip ; in the 

 female they are quite simple : the fore wings 

 are rather long and narrow, slightly arched, 

 but blunt at the tip, and having a decided 

 lobe or angle near the middle of the inner 

 margin ; their colour is smoky-brown, 

 slightly suffused with a saffron tint, and 

 ornamented with a great number of trans- 

 verse and longitudinal darker markings, 

 among which a transversely oblong discoidal 

 spot is perceptible, but not conspicuous ; it 

 is ochreous, with a darker central line : the 

 hind wings are semi-transparent, almost 

 white, the inner margin tinged with saffron- 

 colour ; there are also a number of darker 

 markings about the costal margin and tip, 

 and a series of dark brown markings on the 

 hind margin : the head and thorax are 

 brown, variegated with saffron-tinted gray ; 

 the body is velvety-brown. 



The head of the CATERPILLAR is as wide 

 as the second segment ; the crown is ele- 

 vated, but scarcely notched; the body is 

 smooth, almost uniformly cylindrical, and 

 without humps : the colour of the head is 

 pale apple-green, with four pale stripes 

 down the face ; the median pair are some- 

 what approximate towards the crown, but 

 more widely separated towards the mouth ; 

 the mouth and a conspicuous mark on the 

 lower portion of the cheeks are brown : the 

 body is apple-green, the dorsal surface 

 slightly glaucous ; there are two narrow 

 approximate yellowish -white stripes down 



the back, extending the entire length of the 

 caterpillar, but interrupted at the anterior 

 extremity ; exterior to this double stripe on 

 each side is an irregular and very indistinct 

 series of dots of the same colour ; the second 

 segment has a lateral blotch of brownish- 

 yellow below the spiracle ; the third seg- 

 ment has a larger and more elongated 

 blotch, extending at its posterior extremity 

 towards the back ; these two blotches and 

 the mark on the cheek form a single oblique 

 patch, when the caterpillar is at rest ; the 

 fourth segment has a small lateral spot of 

 the same colour, and on each side beyond 

 this are seven oblique stripes on each side 

 of the caterpillar, the seventh being longer 

 than the rest, and terminating in the anal 

 flap ; these oblique stripes are longitudinally 

 divided, the upper portion being pink, the 

 lower white or whitish-yellow ; near the 

 inferior extremity of each stripe, and almost 

 touching it, is a pale spiracle in a black 

 ring ; in the seventh stripe the spiracle is 

 almost in the middle ; the legs are pinkish ; 

 the claspers are of the same colour as the 

 ventral area of the body, but are tinged 

 with purple at the extremities. It feeds on 

 oak (Quercus robur), and Mr. Greene has 

 been successful in finding the CHRYSALIDS 

 at the roots of oak-trees in September. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in May 

 and June : it is esteemed a rarity, but 

 has occurred in several of our English 

 counties, and Mr. Birchall says it is not 

 uncommon in the county Wicklow, in Ire- 

 land. (The scientific name is Notodonta 

 trepida.) 



