456 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



Annual for 1868, p. 125, do not agree with 

 the authentic examples of the species from the 

 continent of Europe kindly given me by Mr. 

 Doubleday and described above. (The scien- 

 tific name is Plusia Ni.) 



705. The Scarce Silver Y (Plusia interrogationis). 



705. THE SCARCE SILVER Y. The palpi 

 are porrected and ascending, the second joint 

 very scaly, the terminal joint slender, short, 

 and erect ; the antennae are simple : the costal 

 margin of the fore wings is straight nearly to 

 the tip, then slightly bent and slightly pointed; 

 their colour is gray of various shades, beauti- 

 fully mottled and marbled, and having a rich 

 purplish-sepia tint ; in the middle of the wing 

 is a silvery mark which has been variously 

 described, sometimes compared to a note of 

 interrogation; its shape is inconstant, but its 

 more ordinary appearance is represented in the 

 engraving ; the fringe is gray spotted with 

 sepia-brown ; the hind wings are dark sepia- 

 brown with a pale median band and darker 

 wing-rays ; the fringe is gray spotted with 

 brown : the head and thorax are mottled like 

 the fore wings, the body is gray-brown. 



CATERPILLAR green with white marking 

 ( Treitschke}. Tt feeds on stinging-nettles ( Ur- 

 tica dioica). (Stainton's Manual, vol. i., 308.) 

 The MOTH appears on the wing in June, and 

 has been taken by Lieut. Reed at Torquay, 

 and Mr. J. S. Dell near Cann Quarry, Bick- 

 leigh Vale ; these two captures, recorded by 

 Mr. Reading, are the only ones I have heard 

 of in the south of England, but other records 

 exist of its occurrence at Llangollen in Wales, 

 at Shrewsbury, in Derbyshire, Cheshire, York- 

 shire, Lancashire, Westmoreland, and the 

 Highlands of Scotland. It has not yet been 

 recorded as occurring in Ireland. (The scien- 

 tific name is Plusia interrogation'.*.} 



706. The Herald (Gonoptera Libatrix). 



706. THE HERALD. The palpiare porrected 

 and obliquely ascending ; the second joint is 

 long and densely clothed with scales, the ter- 

 minal joint long and slender ; the antennae 

 are serrated; the fore wings are nearly straight 

 on the costa, hooked and pointed at the tip, 

 and strongly toothed on the hind margin ; their 

 colour is gray, thickly freckled with minute 

 transverse brown streaks, a little darker than 

 the ground colour ; the median and basal areas 

 are tinged with rufous-orange ; there is a white 

 dot at the middle of the base, and an indistinct 

 transverse gray line before the orbicular, which 

 is represented by a small white spot ; the reni- 

 form is not perceptible; but beyond the situa- 

 tion it usually occupies, is an oblique double 

 gray line ; a third gray line descends from 

 near the tip, and is lost in the hind-marginal 

 area : the hind wings are gray-brown : the head 

 and thorax are tinged with reddish-brown, the 

 body is gray-brown and flattened. 



The CATERPILLAR rests in a nearly straight 

 position on its food-plant ; the head is smooth, 

 obviously narrower than the second segment; 

 the body is long, slender, and slightly attenu- 

 ated towards both extremities; it is smooth 

 and velvety, both in appearance and to the 

 touch ; the claspers are ten, but I have ob- 

 served that the first ventral pair are rarely 

 used in crawling; the anal pair are rather 

 widely separated and are stretched out behind ; 

 the colour of the head is pale apple-green, of 

 the body apple-green, with a narrow medio- 

 dorsal stripe, slightly darker, but very indis- 

 tinct ; the ventral area is glaucous-green, 

 but the division between the dorsal and 

 ventral areas is neither abrupt nor decided ; 

 there is a whitish and narrow lateral stripe, 

 which, however, seems rather to form part oi 



