NOCTUAS. 



335 



decidedly narrow, the costal and hind 

 as being nearly parallel ; their colour is 

 obscure green, with numerous very dis- 

 ict markings, most of them black ; the orbi- 

 and reniforin are outlined in black, the 

 ea enclosed by the black outline is light 

 ay, with a median darker shade, which in 

 orbicular is indistinctly circular, and in 

 tie reniform has somewhat the shape of an 

 our-glass; there are three zigzag black lines, 

 be first short and near the base, the second is 

 efore the orbicular, and the third beyond the 

 aiform ; beyond the third is an elbowed 

 dish bar parallel with the hind margin, but 

 quite reaching the'costa, and on the hind 

 itself is a linear series of elongate 

 ck spots : the hind wings are smoky -brown, 

 aler at the base, having an obscurely crescent- 

 iaped discoidal spot, and a black marginal 

 ne : the thorax is pale greenish-gray, dotted 

 black : the body is of the same colour as 

 ic hind wings. 



The head of the CATERPILLAR is very pale 

 brown, broadly notched on the crown, and 

 here is a dark V-shaped mark pointing back- 

 yards on the face : the colour of the body is 

 very various : a medio-dorsal series of longi- 

 idinal gray markings, each extending almost 

 lie length of a segment and dilated posteriorly; 

 bese markings are margined on each side by 

 thers of a smoky-brown, which are narrowed 

 mere lines in front, but dilated posteriorly: 

 . each side of the narrowed portion is a spot 

 ' the same colour ; all the aforesaid markings 

 onstitute a variegated median stripe ; on each 

 ide of this is a ferruginous stripe, interrupted 

 the segmental divisions, and below this on 

 each side is a narrow stripe extending to the 

 spiracles, which are black ; there is a gray 

 stripe below the spiracles; the belly is dingy 

 gray : it feeds on chick weed (Alsine media}, 

 and is full-fed at midsummer, when it 

 changes to a CHRYSALIS just below the surface 

 of the earth. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in August ; 

 it has been taken both on the north and south 

 coasts of Devonshire by Mr. Reading, in Dor- 

 setshire by Mr. Dale, in Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, 

 in South Wales, Cheshire, and Lancashire. 



Mr. Douglas Robinson reports it from Scot- 

 land, and Mr. Birchall says it is common on 

 the sand-hills of the Dublin coast. (The 

 scientific name is Agrotis pr&cox.) 



541. The Stout Dart (Agrotis ravida). 



541. THE STOUT DART. The palpi are por- 

 rected and slightly ascending ; the second joint 

 is cup-shaped, the third very small and scarcely 

 perceptible : the antennae are simple and 

 slender : the colour of the fore wings is dingy 

 brown with very obscure and inconspicuous 

 markings : the orbicular is longitudinally 

 elongate and oblique ; it is outlined in black, 

 but the median area is concolorous with the 

 general ground colour of the wing ; the reni- 

 form is incomplete, being outlined in black on 

 its interior border only ; the hind wings are 

 pale gray-brown, the wing-rays and hind 

 margin rather darker : the head and thorax 

 are the same colour as the fore wings, the 

 body the same colour as the hind wings. 



The CATERPILLARS were found by Mr. 

 Doubleday just below the surface of the 

 ground, at the roots of thistles and dandelions; 

 they feed greedily on the leaves of the latter. 

 Mr. Buckler has described three varieties in 

 No. 1 7 of the Entomologists' Monthly Maga- 

 zine, as under : 



Var. 1. Caterpillar yellowish-brown, slightly 

 tapering near the head, but almost of uniform 

 thickness, and cylindi-ical ; a thin dorsal line 

 slightly paler than the ground colour, and 

 running through a dusky V-like streak at the 

 end of each segment after the fourth. At the 

 commencement of the fourth segment, on each 

 side, and close to the division, is a sub-dorsal 

 ochreous-yellow spot, which, on the fifth to 



