270 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



456. The Bull-rusa (Nonagria Typhce). 



456. THE BULL-RUSH. The antenna? are 

 ciliated in both sexes, rather more so in the 

 male : the fore wings have the costa rather 

 arched, the tip rather blunt, the hind margin 

 slightly scalloped ; their usual colour is 

 wainscot-brown, with three transverse series 

 of small dark spots, the first of which consists 

 of the usual six or seven spots forming a 

 curved line, and these are always seated on 

 the wing-rays ; the second of longitudinally 

 linear or sometimes arrow-like marks, all 

 seated in the interspaces and not on the wing- 

 rays, and the third in a hind-marginal series 

 of crescents on the extreme edge of the wing ; 

 the hind wings are pearly gray, and have a 

 broad band, more or less conspicuous, of a 

 smoky black colour, just within the .margin : 

 the ground colour of the fore wings sometimes 

 varies to a dark timber-brown, and this is 

 more especially the case in the male : the 

 head and thorax are wainscot-brown, the 

 body dingy brown. 



The CATERPILLAR is long and maggot-like, 

 the head very glabrous, and the second seg- 

 ment having a dorsal plate, which is also 

 highly polished. The head is reddish : the 

 body is putty-coloured, inclining to wainscot- 

 brown, with the plate on the second segment 

 reddish indeed, of the same colour as the 



head ; on each side, above the spiracles, ar 

 two narrow ochre-coloured stripes, the spi- 

 racles themselves being black ; the ventr 

 surface, legs, and claspevs are pale putty- 

 coloured, the legs tipped with brown. '-. j[ 

 feeds in the stem of the reed-mace (Tt/p/ia 

 latifolia), eating only the pith until nearly 

 full-fed, when it prepares a circular hole for 

 escape, eating away the coating of the reed 

 mace, except a very slender skin, almost us \ 

 thin as tissue paper : having prepared this I 

 means of escape, .it returns up the gallery 

 it has excavated, and at the end of August 

 changes to a dark brown CHRYSALIS, the amd 

 extremity of which is fixed to the wall of its 

 gallery, and there it hangs with the head 

 downwards, about an inch and a half above 

 the hole. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in Sep- 

 tember, and occurs commonly in all localities j 

 in England where the reed mace (Typlm 

 latifolia} abounds. Mr. Birchall has not met 

 with it in Ireland, but gives the County 

 Wicklow as a locality, on the authority of 

 Mr. Bristow. (The scientific name is Nona- 

 gria 



457. The Twin-spotted Wainscot (Nonagria 

 ycminipuncta). 



457. THE TWIN-SPOTTED WAIXSCOT. The 

 antenna? are nearly simple in both sexes ; the 

 fore wings have the costa rather arched, the 

 tip blunt, the hind margin nearly straight ; 

 their colour is dingy olive-brown, paler and 

 inclining to ochreous along the inner margin, 

 more especially towards the base of the wing; 

 in the very centre of the wing is a small 

 double spot, sometimes white, sometimes dark 

 brown, and in some instances, white sur- 

 rounded with dark brown ; and between 

 this and the base is a second double spot, 

 often indistinct, and apparently almost absent, 



