BRITISH MOTHS. 



408. The Great Prominent (Notodontu 



408. THE GREAT PROMINENT. Theantenme 

 are long, decidedly pectinated towards the base 

 in the male, but become almost simple and 

 hair-like towards the tip ; in the female they 

 are quite simple : the fore wings are rather 

 long and narrow, slightly arched, but blunt 

 at the tip, and having a decided lobe or angle 

 near the middle of the inner margin ; their 

 colour is smoky-brown, slightly suffused with 

 a saffron tint, and ornamented with a great 

 number of transverse and longitudinal darker 

 markings, among which a transversely oblong 

 discoidal spot is perceptible, but not conspi- 

 cuous ; it is ochreous with a darker central 

 line : the hind wings are semi-transparent, 

 almost white, the inner margin tinged with 

 saffron-colour ; there are also a number of 

 darker markings about the costal margin and 

 tip, and a series of dark brown markings on 

 the hind margin : the head and thorax are 

 brown, variegated with saffron-tinted gray ; 

 the body is velvety -brown. 



The head of the CATERPILLAR is as wide as 

 the second segment ; the crown is elevated but 

 scarcely notched ; the body is smooth, almost 

 uniformly cylindrical, and without humps : the 

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

 pale stripes down the face ; the median pair are 

 somewhat approximate towards the crown, but 

 more widely separated towards the mouth ; 

 the mouth and a conspicuous mark on the 

 lower portion of the cheeks are brown : the 

 body is apple-green, the dorsal surface slightly 

 glaucous ; there are two narrow approxi- 

 mate yellowish white stripes down the back, 



extending the entire length of .the caterpillar, 

 but interrupted at the anterior extremity ; 

 exterior to this double stripe on each side, is 

 an irregular and very indistinct series of dots 

 of the same colour ; the second segment has 

 a lateral blotch of brownish-yellow below the 

 spiracle ; the third segment has a larger and 

 more elongated blotch, extending at its pos- 

 terior extremity towards the back ; these two 

 blotches and the mark on the cheek form a 

 single oblique patch, when the caterpillar i-> 

 at rest ; the fourth segment has a small lateral 

 spot of the same colour, and on each side 

 beyond this are seven oblique stripes on each 

 side of the caterpillar, the seventh being 

 longer than the rest, and terminating in the 

 anal flap ; these oblique stripes are longitudi- 

 nally divided, the upper portion being pink, 

 the lower white or whitish-yellow ; near the 

 inferior extremity of each stripe, and almost 

 touching it, is a pale spiracle in a black ring ; 

 in the seventh stripe the spiracle is almost in 

 the middle ; the legs are pinkish ; the claspers 

 are of the same colour as the ventral area of 

 the body, but are tinged with purple at the 

 extremities. It feeds on oak ( Quercus robur), 

 and Mr. Greene has been successful in finding 

 the CHRYSALIDS at the roots of oak-trees in 

 September. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in May and 

 June : it is esteemed a rarity, but has oc- 

 curred in several of our English counties, and 

 Mr. Birchall says it is not uncommon in the 

 county Wicklow, in Ireland. (The scientific 

 name is Notodonta trepida.} 



