353 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



falls to the ground when annoyed ; the head 

 is small but exserted ; it is narrower than the 

 second segment, but is never received into 

 it ; the body is velvety and obese ; it is rather 

 attenuated at the anterior extremity; the 

 colour of the head prior to the last moult is 

 dull brown, with a paler reticulated line down 

 the middle of the face, and another on each 

 cheek; the body is umber-brown of two 

 shades, which form bands across the back, the 

 paler bands being at the interstices of the 

 segments ; the entire surface is delicately 



O * 



reticulated ; there is a short white or yellow 

 linear mark on each side of each segment ; 

 this is always in the dark bands, and above 

 each of these marks are two round white dots ; 

 there is a continuous bright yellow stripe just 

 below the spiracles, which are black, and 

 which touch and seem to rest on this yellow 

 stripe ; the colour of the spiracles is always 

 black ; the ventral is rather paler than the 

 dorsal area, and the legs and claspers are of 

 the same colour. After the last moult con- 

 siderable change takes place in the colouring ; 

 the bright yellow stripe in the region of the 

 spiracles disappears, and its position is only to 

 be traced by searching with a lens along the 

 side, when a very indistinct stripe will be 

 found just below the spiracles, except on the 

 second segment close to the head, where an 

 ochreous-yellow line clearly marks the site 

 where the bright yellow stripe commenced ; 

 the white or yellow linear spots on each side 

 of the back remain very distinct ; and in the 

 space between each of these is a circular white 

 spot ; immediately above it is of an intensely 

 dark velvety brown, almost black ; the ground 

 colour below each linear spot is also very 

 dark, so that these markings are rendered 

 very conspicuous ; the dark colour of the back 

 assumes somewhat the appearance of a series 

 of inverted pyramids, the apices of which 

 point towards the anal extremity. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in March 

 and April, frequenting the catkins of the 

 sallow : it is very generally distributed in 

 England, and has been taken rather abun- 

 dantly in Scotland. Mr. Birchall reports it 

 from the county Wicklow, in Ireland, on the 



authority of Mr. Bristow. (The scientific 

 name is Tceniocampa rubricosa.) 



576. The Clouded Drab ( Twniocampa instabilis). 



576. THE CLOUDED DRAB. The palpi are 

 very inconspicuous ; the antennse slightly 

 serrated in the male, quite simple in the 

 female : the wings are very different in colour 

 and markings, the ground colour varying to 

 almost every shade of ferruginous brown and 

 gray-brown, sometimes plain and almost uni- 

 colorous. at others mottled and marbled ; the 

 discoidal spots are \isually entire, their cir- 

 cumscription clearly denned in pale gray, 

 almost white ; and there is also usually a very 

 distinct pale line parallel with the hind mar- 

 gin ; this is slightly irregular, scarcely so 

 much so as to be called zigzag : the costal 

 margin is usually paler, and interrupted vritti 



