NOCTUAS. 



287 



mouth. The ground-colour of the body is 

 olive-green above ; on the back there is a fine 

 thread-like line of yellowish or pale grayish, 

 enclosed by two others of dark gray, which 

 form the dorsal line, and run through a series 

 of elliptic marks of slate-colour. The sub- 

 dorsal stripe is narrow and slate-colour, begin- 

 ning at the third segment, and after the fifth 

 merging into a broad lateral stripe (which 

 commences on the second segment) of dark, 

 slaty gray, most intense at its lower edge, 

 just above which, on each segment, is a large 

 blackish shining tubercle, furnished with a 

 bristle ; the ordinary dorsal tubercular spots 

 are small, with minute hairs. The spiracular 

 region is bright sulphur-yellow, and the belly 

 greenish." 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July, and 

 has been taken in Buckinghamshire, Suffolk, 

 Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Lancashire. 

 Mr. Birchall says it has also been taken at 

 Powerscourt, in Ireland. (The scientific name 

 is Xylophasia scolopacina.) 



481. The Bird's-wing (Dipterygia Pinastri). 



481. THE BIRD'S-WING. The palpi are 

 rather long, curved, porrected, and naked at 

 the tip; the antennae are simple in both sexes; 

 the fore wings are ample, nearly straight on 

 the costa, blunt at the tip, and scalloped on the 

 hind margin; their colour is dull black, with a 

 dull ochreous mark on the inner margin, which 

 expands at the anal angle into a large blotch, 

 representing with remarkable fidelity the ex- 

 panded wing of an eagle, whence the name 

 of "Bird's-wing;" there are two or three 

 pale streaks between this bird's wing and the 

 costa, and seven pale streaks in the black 

 fringe. The hind wings are smoky black, with 

 still darker rays, and a crescentic discoidal 

 spot ; the fringe is rather paler ; the palpi and 

 head are black; the antennje dark brown, with 



a small pale button at the base in front ; the 

 thorax is crested, the front and sides being 

 black ; and the disk dark ochreous brown ; 

 the body is smoky brown, and very slightly 

 crested. 



The CATERPILLAR has a small head, narrower 

 than the second segment ; the body is cylin- 

 drical, smooth, rather attenuated at the 

 anterior, and rather iucrassated at the pos- 

 terior extremity, the twelfth segment having 

 a slight medio-dorsal elevation ; the head is 

 chocolate-brown, with four lines down the 

 face; the body is of the same colour and has a 

 darker medio-dorsal stripe, which is intersected 

 throughout by a pale line ; on each side is a 

 lateral stripe less distinct ; below this a spira- 

 cular stripe very distinct, broad, continuous, 

 and of a dirty white colour ; the dorsal dots 

 are small and black, each of the posterior ones 

 is attached to a small round white spot, parti- 

 cularly conspicuous on the fifth and sixth seg- 

 ments. It feeds in autumn on the different 

 species of dock (Rumex), and when full fed 

 spins a cocoon on the surface of the earth, and 

 therein changes to a stout, cylindrical, blunt 

 CHKYSALIS, the wing-cases of which are some- 

 what swollen. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June. It 

 is abundant in Epping Forest, near Loughton, 

 and also near Lewes, and in other parts of 

 Essex and Sussex, and it has been taken in 

 Surrey, Kent, and Suffolk. (The scientific 

 name is Dipterygia Pinastri.} 



Obs. This is one of those moths which 

 are constant in the arrangement and tint of 

 their colours. I am unable to select from 

 among the numerous specimens which have 

 reached my hands, a single individual to 

 which I can possihly allude as a variety. 

 In this respect there is a great discrepancy 

 among the Noctuas ; some, as we shall have 

 to observe in the genus A gratis,, being so 

 variable that it is almost impossible to find 

 two alike ; others, as in the present instance, 

 so similar, that it is equally difficult to find a 

 variety. 



