NOCTUAS. 



295 



LB 



i 



terminal joint is small and short ; the antennse 

 re long, pointed, and strongly pectinated in 

 e male, but simple in the female : the fore 

 wings are ample, very nearly straight on the 

 costal, and scalloped on the hind margin ; 

 eir colour is gray, slightly tinged with 

 hreous, and clouded and variegated with 

 own ; the discoidal spots are very con- 

 icuous ; they are of the same clouded gray 

 'lour as the rest of the wing, but their cir- 

 mscription is white, and the ground colour 

 rrounding it very dark ; below the orbicular 

 a very dark and obtusely wedge-shaped 

 it pointing towards the hind margin ; there 

 e four double transverse lines, the first near 

 he base, very short, bent, and imperfect to- 

 ards the inner margin ; the second before 

 e orbicular, and united to the wedge-shaped 

 the third, which is much interrupted 

 d oblique, beyond the reniform ; and the 

 urth, which is very zigzag, and very pale, 

 .rallel with the hind margin ; on this last 

 ,re seated six or seven distinct and acutely 

 edge-shaped dark spots, all of them point- 

 g towards middle of the wing ; the costal 

 nargin is spotted with darker and lighter: 

 e hind wings are cloudy gray, with the 

 ing-rays, a crescentic discoidal spot, and a 

 arginal line decidedly darker ; their outline 

 waved ; there is also an indistinct clouded 

 nd parallel with the hind margin, more 

 rticularly observable in the female ; the 

 inge is spotted ; the head and thoi-ax are 

 aried with gray and brown. ; the body is 

 myish-brown, with a medio-dorsal series of 

 arker crests. 



The CATERPILLAR has not been found in 

 is country, but C4uenee describes it as obese, 

 elvety, and swollen posteriorly, and having 

 all and short clampers, and a large and gla- 

 rous head of a light brown colour ; the body 

 yellowish-gray, and striated, with a very 

 conspicuous medio-dorsal stripe of a nankeen- 

 yellow colour ; the sub-dorsal stripe is less 

 distinct, and the spiracular stripe melts 

 gradually into the paler area beneath ; the 

 usual dots are extremely small and scarcely 

 perceptible : the spiracles are strongly out- 

 lined with black : there is a shining brown 



plate on the second segment. It feeds in 

 those tufts of grass which gi'ow on commons 

 and in dry woods, and lives through the 

 winter from October till the following April. 

 When full-fed, it makes a soft cocoon 

 among mosses on the surface of the ground, 

 and therein changes to a short, big-bellied 

 CHRYSALIS, with the anterior part of each 

 segment chagreened, and the extremity of 

 the abdomen very blunt. 



The MOTH appears on the wing at the end 

 of June, and continues flying until the mid- 

 dle of July: the only British locality in 

 which it has been known to occur is Mickle- 

 ham, in Surrey, and here it has not been taken 

 during the last seven years. Mr. Stevens has 

 kindly sent me the following information for 

 publication in this work : " Whilst mothing 

 on Mickleham Downs, early in July, about 

 fifteen years ago, I boxed several moths that 

 were flying round flowers then in bloom, and 

 the next morning, when pinning my captures, 

 I found amongst them a specimen ofPachetra 

 leucopJicea, For several years afterwards, 

 during the same month of July, I succeeded 

 in capturing a few more specimens, not more 

 than fourteen or fifteen in all. For the last 

 seven or eight years I have tried in vain. I 

 have only heard of three more specimens be- 

 sides those mentioned above : the last was 

 taken about seven years ago." (The scientific 

 name is Pachetra leucopkcea.) 



490. The Straw Under-wiog (Cerigo Cytlierea). 



490. THE STRAW UNDER-WING. The palpi 

 are slightly curved and porrected, the terminal 

 joint naked and pointed ; the anteiinse of the 

 male are serrated, of the female simple ; the 

 fore wings are ample, very slightly arched on 

 the costa, blunt at the tip, and waved on the 

 hind margin ; their colour is various, most 



