NOCTUAS. 



247 



ventral area is smoke-coloured tinged with 

 green, and the legs and claspers are of the 

 same colour. When arrived at its full size, 

 it finally leaves its silken home and builds 

 another, in which it changes to a smooth 

 CHRYSALIS, which is of a testaceous red 

 colour, the wing-cases being especially red ; 

 it is covered with a slight whitish, bloom, 

 like that of a ripe plum ; the last segment 

 is fluted, and terminates in three spines, 

 the outer ones of which are smaller than 

 the middle one. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July, 

 August, and September ; there seems to be 

 a continuous succession of moths for about 

 ten weeks : it is very common in most of 

 our English counties, and occurs also in 

 Scotland and Ireland. (The scientific name 

 is Bryophila Perla.) 



423. The Tree-lichen Beauty (Bryophila Alga). 



423. THE TREE-LICHEN BEAUTY. The 

 antennse are flender, simple, and alike in 

 both sexes. The fore wings are rather 

 ample, nearly straight on the costa, and 

 rounded at the tip ; their colour at the base 

 is gray-green, followed by a nearly straight 

 transverse bar almost white ; then follows 

 a broad median brown band, which includes 

 a darker discoidal spot ; then follow a very 

 pale bar, very distinct, and divided at both 

 extremities, but less distinct in the middle, 

 and lastly, a grayish or brownish green 

 hind margin : the hind wings are brown, 

 with a perceptible but not very conspicuous 

 crescentic discoidal spot : the head and 

 thorax are brownish-green, the body paler, 

 with a medio-dorsal series of black spots. 



The CATERPILLAR is gray-green, marbled, 

 with a white medio-dorsal stripe, and a 

 series of white lateral spots ; a stripe near 

 the spiracle, and a horse-shoe shaped mark- 

 ing are black ; the head also is black : it 

 feeds on the lichens which grow on trees. 



I am unacquainted with this caterpillar, 

 and have made the best I can of Guenee's 

 brief description. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July : 

 two specimens have been taken by Mr. 

 Sidebotham in the north of England, but 

 I have neither seen these nor any other 

 British examples. (The scientific name is 

 Bryophila Algae.') 



424. The Scarce Marveil-du-Jour (Dijrfitkera Orion). 



424. THE SCARCE MARVEIL-DU-JOTJR. 

 The antennae are ciliated in the male, sim- 

 ple in the female ; the colour of the fore 

 wings is a beautiful clear green, with four 

 longitudinal white stripes, and three inter- 

 rupted transverse black bars ; the four 

 white stripes are equidistant, the first costal 

 and narrow, the fourth inner marginal 

 and narrow, the intermediate ones rather 

 broader ; the first black bar is near the 

 base of the wing, much bent and very irreg- 

 ular ; the second is median and interrupted 

 in the middle ; the third is the broadest 

 and most conspicuous, very much bent and 

 slightly interrupted, it is accompanied on 

 the outside by a smoky band ; the orbicular 

 spot is small, and is united with the median 

 bar on its inner side ; the reniform spot is 

 outside the median bar, it is black with a 

 white exterior border ; there is a regular 

 hind-marginal series of black and white 

 spots, the inner portion of each being 

 white, the outer portion black ; the fringe 

 is regularly spotted with black and white . 



