NOCTITAS. 



373 



where it was discovered by Mr. "Walton 

 feeding on the yew-berries. He writes : " I 

 was extremely fortunate in detecting the 

 locality for this insect, as it is stated to be 

 unknown ; there were previously only two 

 specimens reputed to be British, one in the 

 British Museum, and the other in the cabinet 

 of Mr. Dale. I captured mine at intervals 

 from the 10th of October to the 6th of Novem- 

 ber, all equally perfect and beautiful." Mr. 

 Birchall informs us that in Ireland it is widely 

 distributed ; he had taken it at Dublin, 

 Tullamore, and Killarney. The scientific 

 name is Dasycampa rubiginea. ) 



597. The Orange Upper- Wing (Hoporina croceagd). 



597. THE ORANGE UPPER-WING. The 

 palpi are decidedly porrected, connivant, and 

 forming a kind of beak with closely approxi- 

 mate points ; the antennse are almost simple 

 in both sexes : the fore wings are very 

 straight on the costa, and nearly square at the 

 tip ; their colour is reddish fulvous with five 

 or six elongate and pure white spots on the 

 costal margin ; the two discoidal spots are 

 present but very indistinct ; the wings are 

 sprinkled over with black markings which 

 form indistinct obliquely transverse series, 

 and in two instances almost continuous lines : 

 the hind wings are very pale, almost white, 

 but just stained with saffron, and having a 

 slender transverse median line very indistinct, 

 and a marginal orange line equally slender 

 and indistinct : the head and thorax are 

 reddish fulvous; the body is very depressed, 

 white at the base, and pale gray-brown in the 

 middle and at the extremity. 



Mr. Pristo has given us in the "Entomolo- 

 gist" a most interesting life-history of this 

 specie*, which I have extracted entire, inter- 

 polating my own description of tJve CATER- 



PILLAR. " On the 1 1th of November, 1864," 

 says Mr. Pristo, "I happened to take an oak- 

 branch, covered with dry leaves, from a hedge, 

 and to my astonishment two specimens of 

 Hoporina croceaga crawled out from beneath 

 the leaves. Having a couple of boxes in my 

 pocket, I quickly secured them : they were 

 taken home and put into a cage in an out- 

 house, with a portion of the resting-place they 

 had chosen. Being anxious to know as much 

 of their habits as possible, I visited them nearly 

 every evening, and with great satisfaction. 

 They were supplied with sugar in a sponge, but 

 although they generally came out from their 

 hiding place on mild evenings, I could not 

 see them touch the sugar till the 5th of April, 

 1865. They rested by day among the leaves, 

 and could scarcely be detected, BO well does 

 their colour match with the leaves. I had 

 often wondered if my two insects were a pair; 

 fortunately they were: on the 16th of March 

 I had the pleasure of seeing them m cop. at 

 8 p.m. The EGGS were deposited singly, on 

 the cage and on the oak-leaves, from the 7th 

 io the 20th of April. These began hatching 

 on the 26th of the same month, and the 

 young caterpillars were supplied with oak, 

 fed well, and grew remarkably fast. When 

 full-grown the caterpillar rolls in a compact 

 ring if disturbed : its colour is wainscot- 

 brown, tinged with orange, and most delicately 

 mottled with the same colour of a rather darker 

 hue ; this darker colour is very apparent in a 

 V-shaped mark on the back of every seg- 

 ment, the apex of the V pointing towards the 

 hinder extremity of the caterpillar : it feeds 

 on oak. The caterpillars began going down 

 on the 5th of June, and had all disappeared 

 by the 12th of the same month. They spun 

 a slight cocoon just beneath the surface of the 

 soil, and remained till the 25th of Auguat 

 before changing to CHRYSALIDS. The first moth 

 appeared on the 9th of September, the last on 

 the 6th of October ; the greatest number in 

 one day, six on the 26th of September. The 

 produce of the pair was thirty -three perfect 

 specimens." 



The MOTH appears on the wing throughout 

 September and October, and has been found 



