BRITISH MOTHS. 



366. The Dark Spinach (Pelurga comitata). 



366. THE DAKK SPINACH. The antenna) 

 are simple in both sexes ; the fore wings are 

 ample, pointed, and slightly falcate ; their 

 colour is tawny yellow, with a small trian- 

 gular basal blotch, and a broad median band, 

 the exterior margin of which has a large- 

 rounded lobe in the middle, and a smaller one 

 near the hind margin ; the basal portion of 

 the blotch and the middle of the band are of 

 the same colour as the rest of the wing, but 

 the margins of both are darker, approaching to 

 brown, the brown being disposed in waved 

 lines ; there is a small but intensely black 

 discoidal spot in the median band : the hind 

 wings are dull biownish yellow, the basal 

 portion slightly daiker: the head, thorax, and 

 body aie dull ochreous yellow. 



The CATEKFILLAK generally rests in a straight 

 position, except that the posterior extremity 

 is raised and the anal 'claspers are not at- 

 tached to the food-plant; but sometimes the 

 ventral and anal claspers are both firmly at- 

 tached, the legs and anterior segments held 

 clear of the food-plant, and the back arched ; 

 when annoyed it falls to the ground and lies 

 <]_uite motionless, bent nearly double, and bent 

 again at the ventral claspers, the following 

 segments standing out at an obtuse angle with 

 the loop. The head is narrower than the 

 second segment, the anterior margin of which 

 forms a kind of cup, receiving the head ; the 

 face is very Hat, arid the crown without any 

 conspicuous notch : the body is stout and has 

 a dilated skinfold, which is deeply indented at 

 the ineisioi s of the segments, giving the sides 

 of the caterpillar when viewed from above, a 

 serrated or notched outline. The colour of 

 the face is daik smoky-brown, almost black, 

 but the sides of the head and the region about 

 the mouth are paler ; the entire head is rather 



glabrous : the colour of the body is dull 

 opaque olive-brown, with slender rivulet 

 smoke-coloured dorsal stripes, very indistinct 

 except on the anterior segments ; on the fifth, 

 sixth, and seventh segments, is a dorsal longi- 

 tudinal series of three yellow dots on each 

 side, and between each series, on the posterior 

 margin of the segment, is a transverse median 

 yellow spot ; an oblique shade passes forwards 

 from each side of each segment, outside the 

 median yellow spot and inside the three yellow 

 dots ; the combination of each pair of these 

 oblique shades forms a V-shaped ornamenta- 

 tion ; there are four minute white warts, 

 arranged in a quadrangle, on the back of each 

 segment after the fourth, and" each wart emits 

 a small black bristle ; the dilated skinfold is 

 of a pale but not vivid pink ; the ventral is 

 paler thsn the dorsal area, and there is a 

 narrow medio-ventral stripe still paler, but 

 intersected by a slender smoke-coloured line 

 this only extends from the third pair of legs 

 to the ventral claspers ; there are many minute 

 blackish warts on the ventral surface, each 

 emitting a bristle : the legs are very pale, the 

 claspers concolorous with the body. It feeds 

 on the various species of goose-foot (Clioio- 

 podium}, and is full-fed early in September, 

 when it changes to a CHRYSALIS on the surface 

 of the earth, and remains in that stale 

 throughout the winter. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July, and 

 has been taken in most of our English coun- 

 ties, hothnoith and south, also in Scotland, and 

 Mr. Birch all records it as of common occur- 

 rence at Howth, in Ireland. (The scientific 

 name is Pi'lunju comitata.} 



367. 'J he Mallow (Mubulia cervinaria), 



367. THE MALLOW. The antenmc are pec- 

 tinated in the male, simple in the female. The 



