NOCTUAS. 



861 



before the orbicular, and often forming an 

 irregular but nearly continuous line ; the 

 second consisting of six or eight dots, and 

 situated beyond the reniform, and the third 

 also consisting of six or eight black dots, being 

 just within the hind-marginal fringe ; there is 

 frequently, but not invariably, a black dot at 

 the base of the wing : the hind wings are 

 gray-brown, their hind margin waved, and the 

 fringe long arid pale : the head and thorax 

 are wainscot brown, inclining to ochreous 

 red ; the body is gray -brown. 



The CATERPILLAR does not roll itself in a 

 ring when touched, but falls off its food plant 

 and twists itself violently, bringing head and 

 tail toother alternately on each side. The 

 head is rather large, the body uniformly 

 cylindrical, and quite smooth. The colour of 

 the head is pellucid, shining glaucous-green ; 

 of the body delicate, clear bright green, and 

 velvety, with a slender pale medio-dorsal 

 stripe, very indistinct, but rendered percep- 

 tible by the action of the dorsal canal ; a 

 narrow transverse yellowish band crosses the 

 back of the twelfth segment : the dorsal sur- 

 face is mottled with indistinct paler dots ; the 

 ventral surface is glaucous-green, and un- 

 spotted. It feeds on oak (Quercits JKobur), is 

 full-fed in the beginning of July, when it 

 changes to a CHRYSALIS on the surface of the 

 earth, perhaps spinning a few silken threads, 

 but making nothing that can be properly 

 called a cocoon. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in March 

 and April, and is universally distributed and 

 abundant throughout the kingdom. I know 

 of no species of which the chrysalis is to be 

 obtained more plentifully by digging at the 

 roots of trees, as so strenuously recommended 

 by Mr. Greene : I have known a collector 

 obtain more than two thousand chrysalids of 

 this species in the course of a week's pupa- 

 digging : they may be found throughout the 

 autumn at the foot of every oak. (The scien- 

 tific name is Tceniooampa stabilis.) 



580. The Powdered Quaker (Tasniocampa gracilAs), 



580. THE POWDERED QUAKER. The palpi 

 are very inconspicuous, their naked tips 

 scarcely projecting beyond the head ; the 

 antennae are serrated in the male, simple in 

 the female : the fore wings are rather pointed 

 at the tip ; their colour is gray, with an 

 ochreous, or, in some specimens, an indistinctly 

 reddish tint ; the discoidal spots are outlined, 

 but not always very distinctly, with a slender 

 paler line ; their median area is darker than 

 the general area of the wing, more especially 

 the lower portion of the reniform ; there is a 

 pale transverse line parallel with the hind 

 margin, and also two transverse series of 

 black dots, the first beyond the reniform, and 

 wlways seated on the wing-rays, which are 

 paler than the general area of the wing^ the 

 second just within the hind-marginal fringe, 

 and never on the wing-rays ; there are also 

 minute black dots scattered sparingly over 

 every part of the wing : the hind wings are 

 pale gray at the base, gradually deepening 

 in shade until they become smoke-coloured 

 at the hind margin; the discoidal spot is 

 crescentic and rather distinct ; the fringe 

 very pale. 



The CATERPILLAR rolls in a ring when 

 touched. The dorsal area of the body is dull 

 green, with three paler narrow stripes, and 

 between these paler stripes is a series of pale 

 dots ; the broad green portion of the back is 

 bordered on each aide by a smoke-coloured 

 stripe, the upper margin of which is suffused 

 and indistinct, the lower margin sharply de- 

 fined and very distinct ; on each side below 

 the smoke-colour is a pale green stripe, paler 

 still at both its upper and lower margins. 

 The belly and clagpers are pellucid green. 



