166 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



median black band, and a broad hind-marginal 

 black band : the head and thorax are marbled 

 with the colours of the fore wings, the body is 

 uniformly gray-brown. 



The CATERPILLAR rests in a nearly straight 

 position on the branches of the oaks, on the 

 leaves of which it feeds, the ventral surface 

 being appressed to the bark ; the head is some- 

 what narrower than the second segment, but 

 distinctly exserted ; the face is flat and the 

 crown gibbose and notched : the body is convex 

 dorsally, and flattened ventrally; the ninth 

 segment has a transverse dorsal ridge, the 

 twelfth segment has also a ridge, but this 

 terminates at each extremity in a lateral 

 tubercle surmounted by a bristle ; the fifth, 

 Bixth, seventh, eighth, tenth, and eleventh 

 segments have each two wart-like tubercles 

 placed transversely, each bearing a bristle ; 

 the claspers are long, dilated and divided at 

 the extremity : the colour of the head is 

 wainscot-brown, reticulated with darker 



brown, and having a conspicuous black band 

 surrounding the face, except towards the 

 mouth ; within this, and very near the crown, 

 are two eye-like black spots : the dorsal sur- 

 face of the body is dull brown, reticulated 

 with pale wainscot-brown ; the tubercles, as 

 well as certain minor warts, are rufous-brown, 

 and very glabrous ; there is a pale transverse 

 dorsal mark on the fifth segment ; the ventrul 

 surface is whitish, inclining to glaucous, with 

 a rufous patch between each pair of ventral 

 claspers. It is full-fed about the eighth of 

 June, when it spins a thin web among the 

 oak-leaves, without descending to the ground. 

 The MOTH appears on the wing in July, and 

 has been found in Dorsetshire, Hampshire, 

 Sussex, Surrey, Kent, and Essex. I have seen 

 it, but not obtained it, sitting on the trunks 

 of oaks in Darenth Wood, but the New Forest 

 in Hampshire is its most abundant locality. 

 (The scientific name is Catocala sponsa.) 



718. The Light Crimson Uncicrwing (Catocala promissa). 



