248 



BEITISH MOTHS. 



regularly spotted with black and white : the 

 hind wings are dark smoke-coloured, with a 

 still darker discoidal spot, some transverse 

 white lines at the anal angle, and a spotted 

 fringe : the head is green, the eyes black, the 

 collar black, the median area of the thorax 

 green, the posterior margin of the thorax is 

 divided into four lobes, all of which are black 

 at the base, and pale green at the tip ; the 

 body is smoky gray, with a medio-dorsal 

 series of blackish crests, of which the third 

 and fourth are the most prominent. 



The EGG is figured by Sepp as having the 

 shape and somewhat the appearance of an 

 Echinus, or sea-urchin, having twenty ribs, 

 which, instead of being perfectly direct, are 

 slightly waved ; there are also a great number 

 of delicately minute transverse lines. Mr. 

 Crewe has described the CATERPILLAR. He 

 says, " "Whilst staying in Hampshire, I took 

 a female D. Orion ; as she was slightly worn 

 and chipped, I kept her in the hope of obtaining 

 eggs. In this I was not disappointed, and the 

 young caterpillars fed well till their last moult 

 on birch (Betula alba). They then, without 

 any apparent reason, began to die off. I then 

 introduced some twigs of oak ( Quercus Robur), 

 for which the birch was entirely deserted, but 

 out of a numerous brood I only succeeded in 

 obtaining four chrysalids. I am inclined to 

 think that in a state of nature the caterpillar 

 feeds indiscriminately on oak and birch, wan- 

 dering from one to the other. I never but 

 once beat the caterpillar ; this was in Suffolk, 

 where I thrashed it out of a birch bush 

 in a wood near Ipswich, and thence it was 

 that I fed my young caterpillars solely on 

 birch.*' The following is a description of 

 the caterpillar : the back is bluish black ; 

 on the fourth, sixth, and ninth segment 

 respectively is a large primrose-yellow blotch, 

 and smaller ones of the same colour on 

 the third and anal segments ; on the second 

 and third segments are the rudiments of two 

 central primrose-yellow dorsal lines : the 

 dorsal and lateral segmental divisions are girt 

 with a belt of orange and primrose-yellow 

 tubercles surmounted by tufts of pale reddish 

 hair ; the subdorsal lines are primrose-yellow, 



interrupted and studded with various-sized 

 primrose-yellow spots ; the lateral lines are 

 four or six in number, blackjinterrupted with 

 yellow and orange, the intermediate spaces 

 being yellow ; the head is black, slightly 

 marked with yellow ; the belly is dirty gray, 

 spotted and marked with black and white ; 

 the legs and claspers arc yellowish, with 

 black markings : it is full-fed in September, 

 and then strongly resembles the caterpillar of 

 the satin moth (Liparis Salicis}. The CHRY- 

 SALIS is enclosed in a cocoon of gnawed bark, 

 or rotten wood ; it is of a dull red colour. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June, 

 and has been found in the. New Forest in 

 Hampshire, near Maidstone in Kent, near 

 Brighton, and in the Weald of Sussex, and 

 especially near Ipswich. I have no record of 

 its occurrence in Scotland or Ireland. (The 

 scientific name is Diphthera Orion.) 



Obs. I have given two very different figures 

 of this most beautiful moth, and I find two 

 descriptions of its caterpillar equally different : 

 it is very probable that there are two species 

 combined under one name, and require sepa- 

 ration ; the late eminent naturalist, <T. F. 

 Stephens, was decidedly of this opinion, and 

 called one of them Diphthera Orion, and the 

 other Diphthera Runica (see Illustrations of 

 British Entomology, Haustellata, vol. iii. p. 46), 

 but entomologists have hitherto declined to 

 accept them as species. 





42-5. The Dark Dagger (Acronycia trident,'). 

 425. THE DARK DAGGER. The antenna) 



