frOCTTJAS. 



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469. The Brindled Ochre (Dasypolia Templi). 



The under- side of the Brindled Ochre. 



469. THE BRINDLED OCHRE. The palpi 

 are rather slender and compressed, forming a 

 kind of beak ; the divisions of the joints are 

 not perceptible on account of the mass of 

 scales in which they are clothed ; the trunk is 

 very short, and the moth has rarely been 

 observed using it for procuring the honey of 

 flowers or attracted by the sugar-bait prepared 

 by entomologists : the antennae of the male 

 are doubly fringed, each joint emitting on each 

 side a fascicle of slender hairs, six or eight in 

 the fascicle, and these are of different lengths ; 

 the hairs in each fascicle are approximate at 

 the base, but diverge towards the extremity : 

 the antennae of the female are downy or 

 velvety, but the down is so short that they 

 appear simple when viewed with the naked 

 eye : the head and thorax are thickly clothed, 

 especially in the males : the wings are ample, 



and their fringe remarkably long ; the fore 

 wings have a straight costa and a rounded tip ; 

 their colour is ochreous-gray, the ochreous 

 tint generally much more apparent in the 

 males than in the females; both the discoidal 

 spots are paler than the ground colour, but 

 very indistinct and sometimes scarcely per- 

 ceptible, and there are two transverse zigzag 

 lines darker than the ground colour, but also, 

 like the discoidal spots, very indistinct and 

 imperfectly denned ; the first of them is 

 nearer the base than the discoidal spots, and 

 is nearly direct ; the second is exterior to the 

 discoidal spots, curved after leaving the costa, 

 and very oblique ; the hind-marginal area has 

 a darker tint than the rest of the wing, but is 

 interrupted by a pale transverse zigzag line, 

 very undefined : the hind wings are paler 

 than the fore wings, and have two indistinct 

 narrow bars rather darker than the ground 

 colour, the margin is also darker ; the head, 

 thorax, and body are dingy gray-brown, in- 

 clining to ochreous in the male : the fore and 

 middle thighs are densely clothed with thick 

 woolly scales as shown in the third figure, iu 

 which it will also be seen that the ornamenta- 

 tion of the under side is different from that 

 of the upper. 



The hybernated females, impregnated in 

 the autumn, lay their EGGS in March on, the 

 cow parsnip (Heracleum sphondylium), in con- 

 finement. Mr. Doubleday found that this 

 event took place about the 20th of March, 

 and that the eggs were fixed on the under- 

 side of the leaves, but whether this is so in a 

 state of nature I am unable to say : the egg 

 is shaped somewhat like an Echinus, but is 

 rather taller, and its sides are ribbed ; when 

 first laid "it is yellowish in colour, with a 

 pinkish-brown spot on the top, and a ring 

 rather above the middle; finally turns black 

 a day or two before the hatching of the cater- 

 pillar." The caterpillars " appear about the 

 20th of April ; at first, they are of a dingy 

 olive-colour, with black heads, rather longish- 

 looking in shape." " Some began by attack- 

 ing the leaf itself, and afterwards the stem ; 

 others made at once for the stem, and com- 

 menced eating their way into the interior and 



