NOCTUAS. 



289 



483. The Feathered Brindle (Aporophyla australis) . 



483. THE FEATHERED BRINDLE. The palpi 

 are short but porrected, scarcely curved ; the 

 antennae of the male are stout and pectinated, 

 the pectinations being very short, those of 

 the female are simple : the fore wings are 

 rather narrow, nearly straight on the costa, 

 blunt at the tip, and somewhat scalloped on 

 the hind margin ; their colour is pale gray, 

 with a cloud of brown-gray about the middle 

 of the costa and extending round the reni- 

 form spot, which it includes ; the reniform 

 is of the visual form and clearly denned ; 

 the orbicular is oblique and oblong ; at the 

 base of the wing, about its middle, is a black 

 streak, extending about a fifth of the length 

 of the wing ; on the inner margin near its 

 base is a small but conspicuous linear blotch ; 

 on the costa beyond the middle are four small 

 white spots ; beyond the middle of the wing 

 there is a zigzag and sharply angled black 

 line, and between these and the base of the 

 wing there are sereral other black lines 

 angled and variously inclined ; the hind-mar- 

 ginal area has the wing-rays black, and being 

 on a pale gray ground they are very conspi- 

 cuous ; the black ceases before the transverse 

 zigzag line ; in each interspace between the 

 black wing-rays is an elongate club-shaped 

 black spot, which emanates from a small but 

 very distinct black crescent, situated on the 

 margin ; the fringe is long, its outline waved, 

 its colour gray-brown, interrupted by a few 

 long H'ldtt! scales issuing from the end of each 

 wing-ray . the hind wings are white in the 

 male, wi'.h grav-b">~^ ""- g-rays, and a mar- 



ginal series of linear marks of the same colour, 

 and frequently with a slight hind-marginal 

 cloud in the female : in the female they are 

 dull brown, with a pale fringe ; the hind 

 margin of the hind wings is indistinctly scal- 

 loped : the head is gray -brown with a black 

 transverse line behind the collar ; on eacn side 

 of the thorax is a white patch, and at the 

 middle of the posterior border is a black spot : 

 the body is gray-brown, the basal segment 

 having some longer scales, more especially 

 observable in the male ; the sides are fringed 

 with similar scales. 



Guenee describes the CATERPILLAR as cylin- 

 drical and smooth, and as having the dorsal 

 area yellowish-red with a paler medio-dorsal 

 stripe ; ike spiracular line is shaded with 

 brown dots, and bordered on its upper side 

 with black streaks : there is a short black 

 mark originating in the " anterior incision," 

 and resting on an oval brown blotch, whici 

 occupies the entire width of the segment ; the 

 head is testaceous-red, reticulated with a 

 darker tint, and having a darker streak ; the 

 ventral area is greenish-yellow. In France it 

 feeds on the endive (Cichorium), smdAsphodelia 

 microcarpus, not recorded as a British plan*. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in August. 

 It was first taken at Yarmouth in Norfolk, 

 and was described and figured by Mr. Curtia 

 under the name of A gratis pascuea, but Mr. 

 Doubleday took one of the specimens to Parisj 

 and found that it was the Australia of Bois- 

 duval ; it has since been taken in Devonshire, 

 Dorsetshire, Isle of Wight, Sussex, and Kent, 

 but I believe nowhere north of these counties ; 

 neither is it recorded from Scotland or Ire- 

 land. (The scientific name is Aporophyla 

 austral'^.} 



484. The Sinal'-'t.ottled Willow (Laphyymaexigua). 



484. THE SMALL-MOTTLED WILLOW. The 

 palpi are very inconspicuous ; they are curved 



