CUSPIDATES. 



238 



409. The Lunar Marbled Brown (Notodonta cltaonia). 



409. THE LUNAR MARBLED BROWN. The 

 antennae are pectinated in the male, simple 

 in the female ; the fore wings are nearly 

 straight on the costa, blunt at the tip, and 

 have a small tuft-like lobe or angle about 

 the middle of the inner margin ; their colour 

 is pale smoky-black, with three zigzag 

 transverse bars, all of them white with 

 black margins ; the first is very short, and 

 very close to the body ; the second is before 

 the middle of the wing, and nearly direct ; 

 the third is beyond the middle of the wing, 

 oblique, and very sharply zigzag ; the area 

 between the first and second bar is uni- 

 formly smoky ; that between the second 

 and third bars is very pale gray, with a 

 transverse smoky cloud, and a narrow cres- 

 centic discoidal spot ; the hind-marginal 

 area is smoky, with an indistinct waved 

 median bar, which intersects the darker 

 wing-rays ; the fringe is alternately gray 

 and smoky ; the hind wings are stnoky- 

 gray, with darker wing-rays, and a very 

 indistinct paler median band ; the head 

 and collar are white or gray : the thorax 

 gray ; the body dingy -brown. 



The full-grown CATERPILLAR rests in a 

 nearly straight position, and with the anal 

 claspers frequently attached to a twig of 

 the food-plant ; the head is manifestly 

 narrower than the second segment, rather 

 flat and porrected ; the body is slightly 

 attenuated at both ends, and the segmental 

 divisions are very strongly marked, other- 

 wise the caterpillar is uniformly cylindrical ; 

 the anal claspers are long, and are stretched 

 out behind ; the colour of both the head 

 and body is pale sickly-green, sometimes 

 approaching to glaucous, and this is the 

 usual colour all over ; but Mr. Hellins in- 

 forms me that the ventral surface is full 

 green in some specimens : there are four 



narrow yellow stripes, two of them dorsal : 

 one on each side dilates slightly at each 

 spiracle, which it encloses : the spiracles are 

 black ; the legs and claspers are unicolorous 

 with the body. It feeds on oak ; but I have 

 not seen a specimen, and therefore have de- 

 scribed the caterpillar from Hiibner's figure. 

 Mr. Greene says of the CHRYSALIS of this 

 species that it is stouter and smoother than 

 that of N. dodontea, but not so glossy. 



The MOTH appears in May ; it is a rare 

 species in Great Britain, but seems widely 

 distributed, and Mr. Birchall informs us it 

 has been taken at Killarney, and in the 

 county Wicklow, in Ireland. (The scien- 

 tific name is Notodonta chaonia.) 



410 The Marbled Brown (Notodonta dodoncea.) 



410. THE MARBLED BROWN. The an- 

 tennae are pectinated in the male, simple in 

 the female ; the fore wings are nearly 

 straight on the costa, blunt at the tip, and 

 have a small tuft-like lobe or angle about 

 the middle of the inner margin ; their colour 

 is smoky and marbled -gray at the base, in- 

 tersected by a curved paler transverse line, 

 which, descending from the costa, terminates 

 in the inner-marginal lobe : this smoky 

 area is followed by a broad pale gray almost 

 white band, and the hind-marginal area is 

 of nearly the same colour as the basal area, 

 but generally more marbled and varied ; 

 there is no discoidal spot ; the fringe is 

 alternately gray and smoky ; the hind wings 

 are pale smoky, with darker wing-rays, and 

 an indistinct transverse paler band : the 

 head, collar, and sides of the thorax are 

 very pale gray, sometimes quite white ; the 

 hind part of the thorax is smoky, varied 

 with gray ; the body is fawn-coloured. 



The head of the CATERPILLAR is broader 

 than the second, third, or foiirth segments ; 

 its colour is bluish-green and reticulated ; 

 the body is pale green, and is transversely 



