460 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



710. The Old Lady (Mania Maura). 



710. THE OLD LADY. The palpi are 

 moderately long, the second joint being 

 thickly clothed with scales, and slightly 

 ascending; the terminal joint is directed 

 straight forwards, and is slender, naked, and 

 pointed ; the antennae are also simple : the 

 fore wings are rather arched on the costa, 

 slightly excavated at the tip, and decidedly 

 scalloped on the hind margin ; their colour is 

 black-brown ; the reniforra and orbicular are 

 very distinct, and are contained in a dark 

 median band : the hind wings are black-brown, 

 with an oblique median pale line ; their hind 

 margin is regularly seal loped : thehead,thorax, 

 and body are black-brown ; the thorax and 

 body are crested ; all the wings have a mar- 

 ginal border slightly paler than the general 

 area; this is particularly observable at the 

 apical angle of the fore wings, and the anal 

 angle of the hind wings : on the underside 

 this border exactly resembles the pale border 

 of Vanessa A ntiopa. 



The EGGS are laid on fruit trees, in the 

 autumn, and the young CATERPILLARS hyber- 

 nate early ; they feed agaiu in spring, as soon 

 as the leaves expand, and are full-grown in 

 May; the head is slightly porrected and 

 rather small : the body is smooth and velvety, 

 rather attenuate-! and leech-like anteriorly, 

 but stouter from the seventh to the eleventh 

 segment : the colour of the head and body is 

 dingy umber-hrown, with various darker and 

 paler markings ; the he.id is obscurely reticu- 

 lated ; the second, third, and fourth segments 

 hav an interrupted pale medio-dorsal stripe ; 



in some specimens this may be indistinctly 

 traced throughout every segment, except the 

 thirteenth ; on the back of each segment from 

 the fifth to the twelfth, both inclusive, the 

 brown colour is intensified in a lozenge-shaped 

 mass ; these lozenges are eight in number ; 

 the last is cut off posteriorly by a transverse 

 black bar extending on each side to the 

 spiracles : on the side of each segment, from 

 the fifth to the twelfth inclusive, are a variety 

 of paler and darker markings : the spiracles 

 are reddish, with a black margin, and above 

 each is a rather complicated marking, con- 

 sisting principally of a pale oblique bar, 

 boi-dered posteriorly by a dark brown or 

 black oblique bar, and having a black 

 marking united to it anteriorly; on the 

 twelfth segment is a narrow black bar 

 extending from spiracle to spiracle. I have 

 found this caterpillar feeding on strawberry 

 leaves, but this is, I think, uncommon. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July and 

 August, and is fond of resorting to summer- 

 houses, boat-houses, sheds, &c., in the interior 

 of which it may frequently be observed in the 

 day time, sitting on the inner surface of the 

 roof : I once counted twenty-eight in a boat- 

 house at Godalming. Mr. Reading says that 

 a marked specimen has returned to the same 

 house after being repeatedly ejected. (The 

 scientific name is Mania Maura.) 



Obs. It appears to me that Mr. Stephens 

 wisely separated this species generically from 

 the foregoing : both the insects figured were 

 kindly lent me by Mr. Bond. 



