NOCTUAS. 



been carried on under my own eye.s, I pub- 

 blished, some years back, in the Zoologist, the 

 details I have now reprinted, which appear to 

 me to open up other unlooked-for affinities : 

 thus there are not only striking points of 

 similarity between Das y polio, and GueneVs 

 families, Leucanidce and Apamidce, but others 

 between Dasypolia and the xylophagous 

 genus Phragmatoscia, and the rhizophagous 

 Hepialus. Admitting the propriety of group- 

 ins the Noctuas into families as Guenee has 



o 



done, I must regard Dasypolia Templi as a 

 member of the family Apamidce. 



Obs. 2. Mr. Buckler, having lately puo- 

 lished some remarks on this species in the 

 Entomologists' Monthly Magazine, while this 

 description was going through the press, I 

 have inserted his additions in inverted 

 commas. 



Obs. 3. Seeing that the economy of this 

 species is carried on entirely in the dark, 

 totally concealed from the prying curiosity of 

 birds and beasts, or even of man, it appears 

 to me remarkable that a very large, indeed an 

 overwhelming, majority of the individuals 

 never attain maturity, owing to the attacks of 

 ichneumonideous parasites. It is difficult to 

 imagine in what manner, or at what period 

 of the caterpillar's life, the parent ichneumon 

 can possibly find access to it, and, led with 

 such certainty by its own unerring instincts, 

 prevent the creature from arriving at perfec- 

 tion, and thus arrest the multiplication of the 

 species. A similar instance of an internal- 

 feeding caterpillar becoming the prey of an 

 ichneumon, occurs in the genus Sirex ; but in 

 that instance the parasite is of excessive rarity, 

 the victim frequently most injuriously com- 

 mon. The parasites on Dasypolia Templi are 

 of two kinds ; first, a large solitary species of 

 true ichneumon (Ichneumon castanopyga), and, 

 secondly, a small gregarious species of Micro- 

 gaster, the name of which has not been ascer- 

 tained, but which is so numerous that Mr. 

 Bond bred four hundred and forty-seven of 

 them from a single chrysalis. Neither of 

 these parasites is peculiar to this moth ; the 

 smaller one is known to destroy hundreds of 

 the caterpillar of Xylophania polyodon. 



470. The Frosted Orange (Gortynaflavago). 



470. THE FROSTED ORANGE. The palpi are 

 rather long and porrected, the terminal joint 

 small, short, and comparatively naked ; the 

 antennae appear rather stouter in the males 

 than in the females, from their being slightly 

 ciliated ; they are of a dingy purple colour, 

 except the broad basal joint, which is white : 

 the fore wings are ample, nearly straight on 

 the costa, pointed, but not acutely so, at the 

 tip, and slightly waved on the hind margin ; 

 their colour is varied, bright ochreous-yellow 

 and rich purple - brown, the limits of each 

 colour being always clearly defined ; the 

 yellow occupies the base of the wing and a 

 broad transverse median band ; the purple 

 occupies a transverse band near the base, and 

 a very broad oblique hind-marginal band, but 

 the ground or prevailing colour in each of these 

 principal divisions of the wing is interrupted 

 by well-defined markings of the other colour : 

 thus the basal yellow blotch contains two 

 irregular transverse purple lines ; the adjoin- 

 ing purple band has a single but very conspi- 

 cuous yellow spot ; the broad median yellow 

 band has the orbicular and reniform spot as 

 well as a D-shaped spot situated below it, 

 clearly outlined in purple, and also three 

 waved but transverse purple lines ; the first 

 of these is continuous and placed nearest to 

 the base of the wing ; the second is slightly 

 interrupted, and passes between the orbicular 

 and reniform spots; the third is continuous 

 and exterior to the reniform ; the broad purple 

 hind-marginal band is traversed by a yellow 

 line broken up into several detached portions : 

 the hind wings are dingy-ochreous, marked 

 very indistinctly by a dusky discuidal spot, 

 a transverse median line, and a submarginal 

 band : the thorax is (rested, it hag a purple 



