NOCTUAS. 



26? 



margin are two other black dots which com- 

 bine with the first in forming a triangle: the 

 hind wings are dark smoke-colour, almost 

 black, the fringe white : the head and thorax 

 are wainscot-brown ; the body very much 

 paler. 



The CATERPILLAR has been minutely described 

 and figured in Boisduval's Collection des Che- 

 nilles, and I have obtained no information 

 respecting it from any other soin'ce ; it rests in 

 a straight position on the blades of grass on 

 which it feeds ; the head is small, much 

 narrower than the second segment, and por- | 

 rected; the body is cylindrical, except at the 

 extremities, which are tapering ; the colour of 

 the head is reddish brown, with darker re- 

 ticulations, and six darker lines ; the body is 

 pale reddish gray: there is a medio-clorsal 

 stripe intersected by a white thread-like line, 

 and this is bordered by a rather broad 

 brownish stripe, which has two black dots in 

 each segment, really four on each segment, 

 two on each side of the medio-dorsal stripe, 

 and each of these black dots emits a small 

 bristle : on each side are two compound 

 stripes paler than the ground colour, one 

 above, the other below the spiracles ; both 

 these stripes are pale yellow-gray and rather 

 broad, and both are intersected throughout by 

 a median red portion which seems to have no 

 dearly defined boundaries; the ventral is paler 

 than the dorsal area, and slightly tinged with 

 green, the spiracles are oval, reddish, and 

 edged with black : the legs are reddish, the 

 claspers are concolorous with the ventral 

 area, but each has two black points and a 

 little cloud on the outside : it undergoes 

 pupation in the earth without spinning any 

 cocoon, and changes to a smooth CHRYSALIS of a 

 dull dee]) red brown, which has a number of 

 hooks at the anal extremity, two of which are 

 longer and every way larger than the rest: 

 they are widely separated at the base but 

 approach at the tips. 



The MOTH appears on the wing about mid- 

 summer, and continues throughout July ; it 

 is very abundant in England, Ireland, and 

 Scotland. (The scientific name is Leucania 

 impura.) 



Obs. A series of Scotch specimens, most 

 kindly presented to me by Mr. Birchall, are 

 rather smaller, and have the hind wings much 

 blacker than English ones. 





451. The Common Wainscot (Leucania pollens). 



451. THE COMMON WAINSCOT. The an- 

 tennae are very slightly thicker in the male: 

 the fore wings are obtuse, almost rounded, at 

 the tip : their colour is pale wainscot-brown, 

 very frequently inclining to red, the tint being 

 very delicate and beautiful ; the wing-rays are 

 very pale, nearly white ; there is a black dot 

 in the very centre of the wing, and two others 

 between this and the hind margin, the thre 

 forming a triangle : the hind wings are white, 

 the wing-rays and a portion of the interspaces 

 slightly clouded; there are a few dots on the 

 wing-rays, in some specimens forming a 

 median series ; the fringe is pure white; the 

 head and thorax are wainscot-brown ; the 

 body paler. 



The CATERPI ',LAR has been reared from the 

 EGO which hatched in September ; it feeds 

 on grass and lives through the winter; it is 

 full-fed about the middle of March or during 

 April, and is thus described by Mr. Buckler 

 in the third volume of the " Entomologists' 

 Monthly Magazine : " its form is cylindrical, 

 its colour ochreous or grayish ochreous, with a 

 whitish dorsal line outlined with dark gray 

 running through the middle of an oval mark 

 of brownish-gray on each segment ; the sub- 

 dorsal line is whitish-margined above, with a 

 grayish stripe, and below by a thin brownish 

 line, and after an interval of the ground 

 colour, another fine line of brown, edged 

 below with a thin line of pale ochreous, 

 followed by a broad stripe of grayish, the 

 black spiracles being along its lower edge; 

 below is a broad stripe of pale ochreous ; the 



