228 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



head, and extending into the anal claspers ; 

 tihs yellow stripe includes the black spiracles : 

 four other stripes are indicated on the dorsal 

 area : these are slightly darker than the 

 ground colour : the legs are nearly black ; the 

 claspers green. (See fig. 10, p. 203.) 



The MOTH appears in June : it is said to 

 have been taken at Killarney, in Ireland, by 

 the late Mr. Bouchard, and also at Burnt 

 Wood, in Staffordshire, as recorded in tlie 

 Zoologist for 1861, at p. 7682, in these words : 

 "At the ordinary meeting of the Manchester 

 Entomological Society, held on the 3rd of July, 

 1861, Mr. John Smith, an artisan collector re- 

 sident here, exhibited a specimen of Notodonta 

 bicolor, captured by himself at Burnt Wood, 

 Stuffordshiie, in the latter part of June last. 

 The specimen is a fine male, though a little 

 rubbed, through being boxed out of the net." 

 There have been several subsequent records of 

 this species at the same locality. (The scien- 

 tific name is N<>t<xJtit<i 



403. The Swallow Prominent (Xotodontn dietcea). 



403. THE SWALLOW PROMINENT. The an- 

 tenna? are moderately pectinated in the male, 

 very slightly so in the female ; the fore wings 

 are rather long and rather narrow, their costal 

 margin nearly straight, the tip rather pro- 

 longed and obtuse ; the hind margin sinuous ; 

 the inner margin has a small and inconspicuous 

 lobe or angle about the middle ; their colour 

 is pale whitey-brown in the centre, the costal 

 margin darker, the dark part expanding into 

 a narrow longitudinal chocolate-brown blotch 

 near the tip ; near the inner margin and ex- 

 tending from the middle of the base to the 

 hind margin, is a rich chocolate-brown shade, 

 the upper margin of which vanishes in the 



pale median area ; this shade is interrupted 

 near the hind margin by several whitish longi- 

 tudinal streaks; the first long, narrow, and 

 pointed at the anal angle ; the second some- 

 what like a compressed crescent; the third near 

 the base and touching the thorax ; the inner 

 margin, especially near the base, has an 

 ochreous tinge ; the hind margin has three 

 slender lines, the interior very pale, the next 

 very dark, the exterior one is intermediate in 

 colour between the other two ; three lines arc 

 intersected by very pale wing-rays : the hind 

 wings are very pale, with a compound brown 

 blotch at the anal angle ; the fringe is-of two 

 colours opposite the blotch, the inner pale, the 

 outer darker : the thorax is umber-brown 

 tinged with gray ; the body grayish-brown. 



The CATERPILLAR has rather a large head, 

 very slightly notched on the crown and 

 shining ; it is of pale green colour : the body 

 is almost uniformly cylindrical until the 

 twelfth segment, which is humped, the hump 

 terminating in a moderately sharp point ; the 

 colour of the body is whitish or glaucous-green 

 on the back, with a broad paler green stripe 

 on each side, and adjoining this there is a 

 narrow raised yellow-green stripe, just below 

 the spiracles, and touching all of them except 

 that on the twelfth segment ; it extends the 

 entire length of the caterpillar, terminating in 

 the anal claspers ; on the summit of the 

 twelfth or humped segment is a black trans- 

 verse line It feeds on poplar (Itytdus niijra], 

 sallow (Salix capraa), &c., and is full-fed 

 about the 22nd of September ; it then spins a 

 thin but large cocoon on the surface of the 

 earth, attaching the upper part to a fallen leaf, 

 which thus performs the office of roof to the 

 domicile, in which it remains throughout the 

 winter. There is a very common variety of 

 this caterpillar plain brown without the 

 slightest appearance of the lateral stripe : 

 this occurs after the last change of skin. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in May ami 

 June, and occurs throughout England, north, 

 south, east, and west; also occasionally in Scot- 

 land. Mr. Birchall found it not uncommonly 

 in the county Wicklow, in Ireland. (The 

 scientific name is Notodonta d'n-trru \ 



