NOCTUAS. 



351 



occurs in the New Forest in Hampshire, in 

 the Isle of Wight, in Sussex, Kent, Surrey, 

 Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire ; also 

 at Howth and Killarney, in Ireland. (The 

 cientific name is Noctua DaJdii.} 



564. The Rosy Marsh (Noctua subrosea). 



564. THE KOSY MAKSH. The palpi are 

 porrected and rather long ; the antennae are 

 strongly pectinated in the male, simple in the 

 female : the fore wings are slightly arched on 

 the costal margin ; their colour is gray with a 

 tint of red, and very glossy ; Loth the discoidal 

 spots are paler, and the space between them 

 darker than the general area ; there are also 

 a darker cloud before the orbicular, a zigzag 

 line beyond this, and a narrow bar again 

 beyond this ; there are three black spots on 

 the costa ; that nearest the tip commences the 

 dark bar : the hind wings are whitish wains- 

 cot brown, with a strongly marked discoidal 

 spot, a transverse bar near the hind margin, 

 and the wing-rays darker : the head and 

 thorax are of the same colour as the fore 

 wings, the body the same colour as the hind 

 wings. 



The CATERPILLAR is very beautiful, of a 

 bright reddish-gray colour, lined and marbled 

 with brown, and having broad medio-dorsal 

 and sub-dorsal stripes, clearly denned, con- 

 tinuous and straight, of a citron-yellow 

 bordered with brown; there is another very 

 broad stripe in the neighbourhood of the 

 spiracles of a sulphur-yellow, and this pre- 

 cedes a ventral band of dark brown; the 

 spiracles are brown ; the head has two brown 

 lines : it feeds on the sweet gale (Myrica, yale), 

 in May and June. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July, and 

 has occurred in Huntingdonshire and Cam- 

 bridgeshire. It has not been taken in Britain 



for many years. (The scientific name is 

 Noctua subrosea.) 



Obs. I am indebted to Guenee's work for a 

 description of the caterpillar, for although my 

 kind friend Mr. Doubleday once possessed 

 the caterpillars in abundance. I did not avail 

 myself of the opportunity of describing them. 



565. The Small Sqnare-Spot (Noctua Rubi). 



565. THE SMALL SQUARE-SPOT. The palpi 

 are porrected and scaly ; the antennae nearly 

 simple in the male, quite so in the female : 

 the costal margin of the fore wings is nearly 

 straight : their colour is reddish-brown, with 

 several transverse darker lines ; the discoidal 

 spots are distinct! T outlined in gray, the reni- 

 form being particu larly conspicuous; there is 

 a distinct black spot below the orbicular, and 

 a dark cloxid between the discoidal spots ; 

 beyond the reniform, and parallel with the 

 hind margin, are two distinct transverse lines, 

 the outer portion of each being dark, the inner 

 portion pale : the hind wings are pale gray- 

 brown, tinged with reddish, and having a 

 pale reddish fringe ; the discoidal spot is 

 darker : the head, thorax, and body are red- 

 dish-brown. 



"The CATERPILLAR is greenish-gray, with 

 darker-edged white dorsal line ; spiracular 

 line pale greenish-ocbreous, edged above with 

 darker, with faint indication of lateral 

 oblique stripes along the sub-dorsal line. On 

 various low plants." (Staintoris Manual, 

 vol. i. p. 236.) 



This species is regularly double-brooded, the 

 MOTH appearing on the wing in May and 

 August : it is generally distributed over 

 England; it has been taken in Scotland ; and 

 Mr. Birchall says it is common at Howth, in 

 Ireland. (The scientific name is 

 Rubi.} 



