NOCTTJAS. 



711. The Black Neck (Toxocampa Pastinum). 



711. THE BLACK N^CK. The palpi are por- 

 rected, the second joint stout and moderately 

 long, the terminal joint short, naked, and 

 pointed ; the antenna? are slightly ciliated ; 

 the fore wings are nearly straight on the costa, 

 blunt at the tip, and waved on the hind 

 margin ; their colour is pale brownish-gi'ay 

 freckled with minute transverse short lines ; 

 the orbicular is represented by a brown, dot ; 

 the reniform is dark velvety brown, with one 

 or sometimes two short oblique lines of the 

 same colour ; the wing-rays are concolorous 

 with the general area, but there is a trans- 

 verse shade beyond the reniform slightly 

 darker than the general area : the hind wings, 

 face, thorax, and body are pale gray-brown ; 

 the crown of the head and collar are rich 

 velvety brown. 



The CATERPILLAR has a small, rather pointed 

 and rather porrected head, a long and leech- 

 like body considerably attenuated at the an- 

 terior extremity ; the colour of the head is 

 smoky-gray; the body has seven distinct 

 stripes, all of them rather narrow ; the medio- 

 dorsal is ochreous-yellow, the next on each 

 side black, the next yellow, the next and last 

 on each side plumbeous-gray, and including 

 sevei-al black dots and spots ; all these stripes 

 are bordered with white; the ventral surface, 

 legs, and cl aspers are very dark smoke-coloured , 

 almost black. It feeds on the purple vetch 

 ( Vicia cracca). 



The JIOTH appears on the wing in June, and 

 is by no means generally distributed in this 

 country; it occurs in Cornwall, Devon, Somer- 

 set, Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey, Kent, 

 Essex, Noi-folk, Suffolk, and Cambridge shire, 

 and has been reported from the lake district 

 and Yorkshire. (The scientific name is Toxo- 

 campa, Pastinum.) 



712. The New Black Neck (Toxocampa Craccce). 



712. THE NEW BLACK NECK. The palpi 

 are porrected, the second joint being stout and 

 moderately long, the third short, naked, and 

 pointed : the antennae are slightly ciliated : the 

 fore wings are straight on the costa, blunt at the 

 tip, and slightly waved on the hind margin ; 

 their colour is pale brownish-gray suffused 

 with a purple tinge and freckled with minute 

 transverse darker lines ; the reniform is re- 

 presented by a cluster of dark-brown spots ; 

 the orbicular is scarcely perceptible; there 

 are four equidistant brown spots on the costa; 

 there is a transverse shade beyond the reni- 

 form, and the wing-rays, which are very pale, 

 are shown conspicuously in passing through 

 this : the hind wings are pale gray-brown ; 

 the face and disk of the thorax and body are 

 also pale gi-ay-brovvn, but the crown of the 

 head and the collar are dark rich veh'ety 

 brown. 



Mr. Buckler thus describes the CATERPILLAR : 

 " When full grown it is an inch and a quarter 

 to an inch and a half in length. When viewed 

 from above it tapers towards the head, and 

 still more towards the posterior end ; but 

 when seen sideways it appears almost uni- 

 formly long and slender. Its manner of crawl- 

 ing is a partial looping of the first six seg- 

 ments ; the first two ventral claspers are very 

 slightly shorter than the others, but to such 

 an extent as to be scarcely noticeably so, and 

 1 it generally assumes an undulating posture in 

 repose along the stem of its food-plant. Along 

 the back, commencing on its head, is a dark 

 brown, very finely mottled broad stripe, widest 

 along the middle segment, and with an addi- 

 tional widening on the eleventh segment ; in 

 the centre of this is a thin, rather pale stripe, 

 enclosing the very dark brown dorsal line. 

 The subdorsal stripes are double, brown, with 



