248 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



the hind wings are dark smoke-coloured, 

 with a still darker discoidal spot, some 

 transverse white lines at the anal angle, 

 and a spotted fringe : the head is green, 

 the eyes black, the collar black, the median 

 area of the thorax green, the posterior 

 margin of the thorax is divided into four 

 lobes, all of which are black at the base, 

 and pale green at the tip; the body is 

 smoky-gray, with a medio-dorsal series of 

 blackish crests, of which the third and 

 fourth are the most prominent. 



The EGG is figured by Sepp as having 

 the shape and somewhat the appearance of 

 an Echinus, or sea-urchin, having twenty 

 ribs, which, instead of being perfectly direct, 

 are slightly waved ; there are also a great 

 number of delicately minute transverse 

 lines. Mr. Crewe has described the CATER- 

 PILLAR. He says, " Whilst staying in 

 Hampshire, I took a female D. Orion -, as 

 she was slightly worn and chipped, I kept 

 her in the hope of obtaining eggs. In this 

 I was not disappointed, and the young 

 caterpillars fed well till their last moult 

 on birch (Betula alba). They then, with- 

 out any apparent reason, began to die off. 

 I then introduced some twigs of oak 

 (Quercus robur), for which the birch was 

 entirely deserted, but out of a numerous 

 brood I only succeeded in obtaining four 

 chrysalids. I am inclined to think that in a 

 state of nature the caterpillar feeds indis- 

 criminately on oak and birch, wandering 

 from one to the other. I never but once 

 beat the caterpillar ; this was in Suffolk, 

 where 1 thrashed it out of a birch bush 

 in a wood near Ipswich, and thence it was 

 that I fed my young caterpillars solely on 

 birch." The following is a description of 

 the caterpillar : the back is bluish-black ; 

 on the fourth, sixth, and ninth segment 

 respectively is a large primrose-yellow 

 blotch, and smaller ones of the same colour 

 on the third and anal segments ; on the 

 second and third segments are the rudi- 

 ments of two central primrose-yellow dorsal 

 lines : the dorsal and lateral segmental 

 divisions are girt with a belt of orange and 

 primrose-yellow tubercles surmounted by 

 tufts of pale reddish hair ; the sub-dorsal 

 lines are primrose-yellow, interrupted and 



studded with various sized primrose-yellow 

 spots ; the lateral lines are four or six in 

 number, black interrupted with yellow and 

 orange, the intermediate spaces being yel- 

 low ; the head is black, slightly marked 

 with yellow ; the belly is dirty-gray, spotted 

 and marked with black and white ; the legs 

 and claspers are yellowish, with black 

 markings : it is full-fed in September, and 

 then strongly resembles the caterpillar of 

 the satin moth (Liparis Solids). The 

 CHRYSALIS is enclosed in a cocoon of gnawed 

 bark, or rotten wood ; it is of a dull red 

 colour. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June, 

 and has been found in the New Forest in 

 Hampshire, near Maidstone in Kent, near 

 Brighton, and in the Weald of Sussex, and 

 especially near Ipswich. I have no record 

 of its occurrence in Scotland or Ireland. 

 (The scientific -name is Diphthera Orion.) 



Obs. I have given two very different 

 figures of this most beautiful moth, and I 

 find two descriptions of its caterpillar 

 equally different : it is very probable that 

 there are two species combined under one 

 name, and require separation ; the late 

 eminent naturalist, J. F. Stephens, was 

 decidedly of this opinion, and called one of 

 them Diphthera Orion, and the other Diph- 

 thera Bunica (see Illustrations of British 

 Entomology, Haustellata, vol. iii. p. 46), but 

 entomologists have hitherto declined to 

 accept them as species. 



425. The Dark Dagger (Acronycta trident}. 



425. THE DARK DAGGER. The antennae 



