418 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



the surface of the ground, enclosed in a very 

 singular cocoon, half silk and half earth ; 

 these the dealers collect in great numbers and 

 sell at a very moderate price, and from them 

 are procured those fine series of moths which 

 appear in most of our collections : the CHRY- 

 SALIS is of a reddish-brown colour, and shining ; 

 the body is conical, and terminates in a very 

 sharp point. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June, and 

 has occurred at Hampstead in Middlesex, 

 Buckinghamshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, 

 and Cambridgeshire. (The scientific name is 

 Hadena Atriplids.) 



651. The Dog's-tooth (Hadena suasa). 



651. THE DOG'S-TOOTH. The palpi are j 

 manifestly porrected, the terminal joint con- 

 cealed among the scales of the second ; the j 

 antennae in both sexes are simple : the colour j 

 of the fore wings is pale dingy-brown, the 

 discoidal spots having a median area of the 

 same colour ; the orbicular has generally a 

 complete but very narrow black circumscrip- 

 tion ; it is oblong and oblique ; the reniform 

 has a less perfect circumscription, and the 

 lower portion of its median area is darker 

 than the upper portion ; there is a dark line 

 at the middle of the base of the wing pointing 

 towards the middle of the wing ; parallel with 

 the hind margin is a very distinct but narrow 

 zigzag yellow line, which projects a W-shaped 

 mark to the hind margin, and on which rest 

 several dark wedge-shaped marks, the points 

 of which are directed towards the base of the 

 wing ; the hind margin is usually darker than 

 any other part of the wing : the hind wings 

 are gray-brown ; the head and thorax are of 

 the same colour as the fore wings ; the body is 

 crested and of the same colour as the hind 

 wings. 



In confinement the CATERPILLAR feeds 



vigorously on the common knotgrass (Foly- 

 gonurn aviculare), and is full-fed about the 

 third week in July. It eats principally by 

 night, resting by day in a straight position on 

 those stems of its food-plant which are pro- 

 strate on the ground ; but, when disturbed, it 

 elevates the anterior part of its body, tucks 

 its head in tightly, and assumes an elegant 

 and most Sphinx-like attitude, even more 

 striking than that of Sphinx Liynstri. If the 

 food-plant be shaken, it falls to the ground in 

 a tight compact ring : the head is narrower 

 than the second segment, into which it is 

 partially received when at rest : the body is 

 almost uniformly cylindrical, but slightly 

 attenuated at both extremities, the divisions 

 of the segments being decidedly but not deeply 

 marked ; the surface is smooth and velvety, 

 but exhibiting under a lens a few minute 

 short hairs : the colour is varioxis ; that of the 

 head and body of the same hue ; the prevailing 

 varieties are obscure grass-green and olive- 

 brown, as in so many other of our Noctuas, the 

 head sometimes plain, sometimes reticulated 

 with darker markings, the dorsal being always 

 darker than the ventral area of the body, and 

 divided immediately below the spiracles by 

 a bright and very conspicuous stripe which 

 extends from the head into the anal claspcrs ; 

 this stripe is bright ochreous-yellow, narrowly 

 margined above by dark umber-brown in the 

 browner specimens, by black in the greener 

 ones, and margined below by a paler stripe, 

 which In some specimens has a tinge of brick- 

 red ; the dorsal surface has three indistinct 

 narrow stripes darker than the ground-colour 

 and dividing the dorsal area into four equal 

 parts : these three stripes are scarcely per- 

 ceptible in the greener specimens, but in some 

 of the browner specimens are very conspicuous, 

 and interrupted at the divisions of the seg- 

 ments ; and each of the exterior ones is thus 

 divided into a series of separate markings, 

 each of which is slightly oblique, and together 

 they constitute a tolerably regular series on 

 each side of the back : on each side of each 

 segment, equidistant between the medio-dorsal 

 and the interrupted stripe, is a double dot, 

 half black and half white ; and the entire 



