360 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



578. The Lead-coloured Drab (TceniocampaPopuleti). 



578. THE LEAD-COLOURED DRAB. The 

 palpi are very inconspicuous ; they are pale at 

 the tips, but nearly black on the outside ; the 

 antennfe of the male are rather strongly pec- 

 tinated, those of the female quite simple : the 

 colour of the fore wings is gray-brown, with 

 a purple or violet tinge, inclining to dove- 

 colour ; the discoidal spots are distinctly out- 

 lined in pale gray, and the median area of 

 each is rather darker than the ground colour ; 

 there is but one manifest transverse line, and 

 that is parallel with the hind margin, irregu- 

 lar, interrupted, and slender ; it is preceded 

 by, and almost united with, a darker line, also 

 irregular and interrupted : the hind wings are 

 very dingy gray-brown, the crescentic dis- 

 coidal spot being scarcely visible ; the fringe 

 is rather paler : the head and thorax are of 

 the same colour as the fore wings, the body 

 slightly redder. 



The EGGS are laid in little clusters on the 

 twigs of poplar and aspen trees, just below 

 the axils of the leaves, before the leaves have 

 expanded in the spring ; and the young CATER-. 

 PILLARS emerging in May, or sometimes even at 

 the end of April, attack the newly-expanded 

 leaves, spinning two or three together and 

 living between them : in the young caterpillar 

 the head is almost black, but when older 

 becomes of a paler colour, almost buff : the 

 ground-colour of the dorsal area of the body 

 is dingy white, as is so commonly the case 

 with caterpillars that live, during any portion 

 of their existence, concealed : there is a broad 

 and very distinct medio-dorsal stripe, almost 

 "white, and a narrower one on each side of it 

 less distinct : the whole surface of the body is 

 sparingly clothed with whitish hairs: the 

 spiracles are encircled by slender waved 



whitish lines : during the whole of its cater- 

 pillar life it continues to feed between united 

 leaves of various species of poplar, preferring 

 that known as the black Italian, and may be 

 found full fed throughout the month of June ; 

 it then descends to the ground, and penetrates 

 deeper than the other species of the same 

 geims : throughout life it is fond of company, 

 and Mr. Greene found a "nest" of thirteen 

 chrysalids altogether at the roots of a poplar. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in March 

 and April, and is widely, although perhaps not 

 generally, distributed. Mr. Reading records 

 its having been taken at gas-lamps at Wood- 

 side, Plymouth ; it has also occurred in all the 

 metropolitan and eastern counties, and again 

 in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwick- 

 shire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshii'e, the 

 Lake District, and Yorkshire ; and Mr. Bir- 

 ch all reports it from Wicklow and Killarney, 

 in Ireland. (The scientific name is Ta.'i/io- 

 campa Populeti.) 



Obs. This species seemr, to me best dis- 

 tinguished from the two which precede it by 

 its more pectinated antenna). 



579. The Common Quaker (Taniocampa stdbilis). 



579. THECOMMOX QUAKER. The palpi are 

 porrected and rather conspicuous, the apical 

 joint naked ; the antenna? are rather strongly 

 pectinated in the male, slightly serrated in. 

 the female : the colour of the fore wings is 

 wainscot-brown, inclining to ochrcous-ved, and 

 very uniform ; the discoidal spots are near 

 together, and distinctly but delicately outlined 

 with pale ochreous, the enclosed area being 

 concolorous with the general area of the wing; 

 there is a distinct and conspicuous pale line 

 parallel with the hind margin, and the parallel 

 wing -rays which pass through this to the 

 hind margin are pale; there are also three 

 transverse series of black dots, the first situated 



