NOCTUAS. 



453 



changes to a CHRYSALIS. I am indebted to my 

 kind friend, Mr. Doubleday, for drawings of 

 the caterpillar. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July, and 

 has been taken in Worcestershire, Shropshire, 

 Cheshire, Yorkshire, and Scotland. Mr. 

 Birchall took it in the county % "Wicklow in 

 Ireland. (The scientific name is Plusia 

 bractea.) 



700. The Gold Spot (Plusia Festucce). 



700. THE GOLD SPOT. The palpi are com- 

 pressed, porrected and ascending; the long 

 scales of the second joint projecting in front; 

 the terminal joint is erect and pointed ; the 

 antennae are simple : the for<^ wings are nearly 

 straight on the costal margin and scarcely at 

 all bent towards the tip; their colour is brown, 

 washed here and there with gold, more par- 

 ticularly at the base of the costal margin, 

 'near the apical end of the same, along the 

 hind margin, especially toward its anal angle, 

 and on the inner margin near its base ; there 

 are also three metallic spots, the colour of 

 which is somewhat between the white of 

 silver and the yellow of gold ; their brightness 

 is intense ; two of these are obscurely pear- 

 shaped, and placed lengthwise in the middle 

 of the wing ; the third is nearer the apical 

 angle and adjoins the golden wash at the 

 apical extremity of the costa : the hind wings 

 are gray-brown ; all the fringes are pale rosy- 

 brown ; the antenna?, head, palpi, and thorax 

 are reddish-brown; the body gray-brown 

 tipped with reddish-brown. 



The CATERPILLAR has rather a small head, 

 narrower than the second segment and 

 slightly porrected ; the body is cylindrical 

 and rather stout, it is sparingly covered with 

 short fine hairs ; it has but four ventral 

 claspers, and arches its back in crawling after 



the manner of Geometers : the colour of both 

 head and body is bottle-green, with six narrow 

 and equidistant white stripes on the back, and 

 a rather broader stripe on each side in the 

 region of the spiracles, bright yellow: it feeds 

 on several grasses in May and June, and is full- 

 fed the beginning of August, when it spins a 

 whitish cocoon among the leaves of grasses 

 and changes to a green CHRYSALIS. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in August, 

 and is generally distributed in our English 

 counties, commencing with Cornwall and 

 Devonshire and reaching not only Yorkshire 

 but entering Scotland. Mr. Birchall says it 

 is common and widely distributed in Ireland. 

 (The scientific name is Plusia Feslucce.) 



701. The Plain Golden Y (Plusia Iota). 



701. THE PLAIN GOLDEN Y. The palpi are 

 porrected, ascending, and, except the terminal 

 joint, which is errect and pointed, they are 

 completely muffled in scales ; the antennse are 

 simple : the fore wings are straight on the 

 costal margin, slightly bent towards the pointed 

 tip, and somewhat produced at the anal angle 

 of the inner margin ; their colour is umber- 

 brown, washed with rosy-brown, except as 

 regards a large lozenge-shaped blotch, which 

 occupies the middle of the inner margin, and 

 ascends to the middle of the wing ; this blotch 

 contains two bright marks of burnished gold, 

 the lower and smaller of these is round, the 

 upper is V-shaped : in one of my specimens 

 these are united ; the brown tints of the wing 

 are softly blended together, and not sharply 

 divided : the hind wings are gray-brown, paler 

 at the base and having the wing-rays in the 

 paler area decidedly darker ; all the fringes 

 are rosy-brown, indistinctly alternated with 

 umber-brown : the head, thorax, and body are 

 rosy-brown ; the body is crested and the third 



