NOCTUAS. 



395 



idergoes pupation beneath the surface of 



earth. 

 The MOTH appears on the wing in July, 



Lugust, and September ; it is decidedly a 

 local insect : in Devonshire it occurs at 



J ly mouth, Torquay, Teignmouth, and Mocl- 



jury ; in Herefordshire, at Leominster, where 

 the caterpillar feeds on that familiar plant the 

 tea-tree (Lycitnu bat-barum}, frequently com- 

 pletely stripping it of its leaves. Mr. Stainton 

 reports it from Stowniarket, in Suffolk ; Mr. 

 Horton from Worcester; several entomologists 

 have taken it in Staffordshire, Derbyshire, 

 Cheshire, and thence northwards to nearly 

 all parts of Scotland ; and Mr. Birchall says 

 it is common and generally distributed in 

 Ireland. (The scientific name is Polia Chi.} 



Obs. The beautiful variety mentioned 

 above is described as a species by Mr. Stephens 

 (III us. Haiist., vol. iii. p. 325), under the 

 name of Olimcea ; bxit I scarcely incline to 



msider it distinct. 



625. The Black-banded (Polia nigro-cincta). 



G25. THE BLACK-BANDED. The palpi are 

 )ut slightly porrected and the terminal joint 

 almost concealed; the antennte of the male 

 are very slightly ciliated, those of the female 

 simple : the fore wings are slightly arched 

 on the costa, blunt at the tip, and slightly 

 waved on the hind border; their colour is 

 whitish-gray, with a median but somewhat 

 interrupted black band, which includes both 

 the discoidal spots ; these are of the pale gray 

 ground-colour, with a darker transverse shade 

 the centre, but neither of them is clearly 

 lefined ; the rest of the general area of the 

 dng is thickly sprinkled with black dots and 

 larkings, interspersed with a few minute 

 orange dots : the hind wings are pure white 



in the male, with a very slender black margi- 

 nal line ; they are very dark in the female : 

 the head is nearly white : the thorax mottled- 

 gray, with black dots : the body very pale 

 gray, almost white. 



The CATERPILLAR has been found by Mi\ 

 Greening, feeding 011 the campions (Silene), the' 

 sea pink (Statice Arineria), violet, and common 

 harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) : when 

 nearly full-fed, and in confinement, it will eat 

 almost anything. In appearance the cater- 

 pillar is very similar to that of Epunda lichenea, 

 and would at once be taken for that species 

 by anyone who was not thoroughly acquainted 

 with Licltenea. It is full-fed about the 

 middle of July : it then goes down and spins a 

 tolerably compact cocoon, in which it changes 



to a CHRYSALIS. 



The MOTH appears on the wing at the end 

 of August or beginning of September, and is 

 very common in some parts of Hungary and 

 France ; but very few specimens have been 

 recorded as British : the first is mentioned by 

 Mr. Doubleday, at p. 349 of the third volume 

 of i\\z Entomologist, as having been taken in the 

 caterpillar state by Mr. Greening, in the Isle 

 of Man, feeding on the bladder campion ; the 

 second specimen is i-ecorded by Mr. Hopley, in 

 the forty-second number of the Entomologist's 

 Monthly Magazine ; this specimen was taken 

 during daylight, by Mrs. Fisher, from off the 

 window of a lighthouse, near Padstow, in 

 Cornwall, about the middle of August, 1862; 

 and several caterpillars and one moth have 

 been taken by Mr. Greening in the Isle of 

 Man, during the present year (1868). Mr. 

 Greening, who has kindly furnished me with 

 all the information. I possess respecting 'this 

 species, says : " It is very sluggish in the day- 

 time, but when on the wing in the evening it 

 flies quick and strong. I sugared for three 

 nights, but did not take a specimen ; and I 

 think it just possible that it will not come to 

 sugar, but I have scarcely had a fair chance, 

 as the wind was blowing a gale the whole 

 time." (The scientific name is Polia niyro- 

 cincta.) 



Obs. It is much to be regretted Mr. Green- 

 ing did not describe the caterpillar. 



