NOCTUAS. 



429 



665. The Gray Shoulder-knot (Xylina rhizolitha) . 



665. THE GRAY SHOULDER -KNOT. The 

 palpi ar straight and porrected, the terminal 

 joint rather long and almost square at the 

 extremity; the antennae are nearly simple in 

 both sexes ; the frontal tuft at their base is 

 four-lobed, the lobes forming a kind of square, 

 two of which are above and two below the 

 insertion of the antennae : the fore wings are 

 long and narrow, both the costal and inner 

 margins are straight and almost parallel with 

 each other ; their colour is gray with a few 

 darker markings ; there is a short curved 

 black line at the base, which is bifid at the 

 extremity ; and it has moreover a very short 

 branch on the lower side half way between 

 the base and the bifurcation; the two dis- 

 coid al spots are indicated, but often rather 

 obscurely ; there is a series of eight or nine 

 oblique dark spots on the costa, and another 

 series of seven or eight black dots on the hind 

 margin : the hind wings are dull ochreous- 

 gray : the head and thorax are whitish-gray; 

 the thorax is very square ; the body brown- 

 ish-gray and very flat. 



The head of the CATERPILLAR is almost 

 exactly the same width as the second segment ; 

 it is obtusely triangular and not conspicuously 

 notched on the crown ; the body is uniformly 

 cylindrical, the divisions of the segments 

 rather indistinctly marked, and the whole 

 surface emitting scattered hairs : the colour of 

 both the head and body is a pale glaucous- 

 green, the body having five narrow stripes of 

 a dingy-white colour, and between each two 

 of these stripes is a series of wart-like dots of 

 the same dingy- white colour and each emitting 

 a bristle. The spiracles are very small and 

 inconspicuous, they are white in black rings : 

 the ventral is paler than the dorsal surface, it 



has a tinge of glaucous but very nearly ap- 

 proaches the same dingy-white which charac- 

 terises the stripes of the dorsal surface. When 

 full-fed at the end of May, it descends to the 

 ground and then changes, amongst fallen leaves 

 or grass, to a reddish-brown CHRYSALIS, whichi 

 has two rather long hooked bristles at the anal 

 extremity. I have found nothing that can 

 with propriety be called a cocoon. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in October, 

 and in our southern counties is very commonly 

 found at rest in the day-time on park palings 

 and the trunks of trees ; it also comes to sugar 

 by night : it occurs in most of the English 

 counties, but is most abundant in the western 

 and south-western. Mr. Birchall says it is com- 

 mon at Killarney, and also occurs, although 

 more rarely, in the county Wicklow, in Ireland. 

 (The scientific name is Xylina rhizolitha.) 



666. The Tawny Pinion (Xylina ismilrunnea) . 



666. THE TAWNY PINION. The palpi are 

 porrected and straight, the terminal joint is 

 rather long and naked ; the antennae are 

 almost simple in both sexes : the bead has a 

 four-lobed tuft, the four lobes forming a square, 

 two being above and two below the insertion 

 of the antennae, and all being directed for- 

 wards ; the fore wings are straight and nar- 

 row, the hind margin slightly scalloped and 

 decidedly notched at the anal angle ; their 

 colour, as regards the costal half, is wainscot- 

 brown, longitudinally streaked with sepia- 

 brown, the inner marginal half being almost 

 entirely of ths darker colour : the hind wings 

 are gray-brown, the costal margin and fringe 

 inclining to red, and the wing- rays being 

 conspicuously darker ; the upper lobes of the 

 frontal tuft are sepia-brown ; the thorax has 

 three longitudinal crests or rather ridges, the 

 middle one partially projecting over the haed, 



