NOCTUAS. 



SUPPLEMENT. 



DURING the progress of this work through 

 the press, seven additional species of MOTH 

 have been discovered in Britain, and have been 

 fully described in the Entomologist or hisect- 

 Hunters' Year-book, periodicals instituted for 

 the express purpose of preserving a record 

 of every discovery and observation made in 

 British Entomology. These are now re- 

 described in this Supplement, and an unfortu- 

 nate transposition of two of the figures is also 

 pointed out and rectified. 



23*. The Thrift Clearwing (Sesia Philanthiformis) . 



23*. THE THRIFT CLEARWING. The palpi 

 are distant, porrected, and very sharp-pointed, 

 the second joint is clothed with long scales, 

 the terminal joint is naked ; the fore wings 

 are long and narrow, their colour is black, 

 with two transparent spots, the first an elon- 

 gate triangle reaching from the base to the 

 middle of the wing, the second roundish and 

 beyond the middle ; this second spot is tra- 

 versed by three longitudinal wing-rays, and 

 beyond this second transpai'ent spot is a yel- 

 lowish blotch also traversed by three longi- 

 tudinal wing-rays, which are black but rather 



indistinct ; hind wings transparent, with a 

 black discoidal spot, rays and fringe ; the 

 palpi are of two colours black and gray ; in 

 the female the gray predominates ; the ter- 

 minal joint is naked, its colour is gray at the 

 base and black at the tip ; the antennae are 

 black, with a slight indication of a gray ring 

 near the tip; the face is silvery white, the 

 crown of the head and eyes black, the collar is 

 orange in front, black behind ; the thorax is 

 black, with three longitudinal, pale yellow 

 lines ; the body is black, with a medio-dorsal 

 series of gray spots and several narrow whitish 

 belts ; these are usually three in the male and 

 four in the female ; the caudal tuft is black, 

 largely interspersed with pale yellow scales, 

 which in the males occupy the sides, in the 

 females the middle ; the legs are alternately 

 dull black and gray. 



The CATERPILLAR has a small shining 

 brownish head and a whitish maggot-like 

 body ; it feeds in the interior of clumps of 

 thrift^afa'ce armeria), selecting by preference 

 those which are isolated and starved, and is 

 very rarely found where the thrift is luxuriant 

 and the plants approximate : its presence may 

 readily be detected by the dried and dying 

 appearance of the centre of the tuft : when 

 full-fed, it changes to a CHRYSALIS in the heart 

 of its food-plant ; the chrysalis is pale brown 

 and very shining, and each segment has two 

 transverse rows of rather sharp-pointed dorsal 

 warts directed backwards; the warts in the 

 first row are more than double the size of 

 those in the second row. 



The MOTH appears on the wing about Mid- 

 summer, and is common at Torquay in Devon- 

 shire, in the Isle of Man, and probably 



