NOCTUAS. 



467 



718. THE LIGHT CRIMSON UNDERWING. 



The palpi are porrected and slightly curved up- 

 wards, the terminal joint being slender, almost 

 naked and pointed, the costal margin is nearly 

 straight but slightly bent at the tip, and 

 scalloped on the hind margin ; their colour is 

 gray, mottled and marbled with darker gray, 

 and having not unfrequently a tinge of 

 ochreous: the reniforni is readily to be made 

 out, but not situated in an ochreous patch as 

 in tSponsa : the hind wings are crimson with a 

 narrow median band, which is very slightly 

 waved, and is turned towards the body at its 

 lower extremity ; there is also a broad hind- 

 marginal black band and a gray fringe; the 

 head and thorax have the colours of the Fore 

 wings, the body is uniformly gray-brown. 



The fall-grown CATERPILLAR is figured by 

 Hubner : it rests stretched at full length on a 

 tree, or trunk of its food-plant; the head is 

 prone, and broader and larger than the second 

 segment; it is scarcely notched on the crown : 

 the body is very much attenuated at the 

 anterior extremity,and the posterior portion is 

 large and inflated, each segment being smaller 

 in the middle, and the anal claspers extend- 

 ing backwards and being widely separated ; 

 the colour of the head and body is greenish- 

 gray with sundry black marks 011 the dorsal 

 surface of every segment ; there are no two 

 segments in which the black markings are 

 similar, but all of them are distinct and most 

 clearly defined ; on the eighth segment these 

 assume the appearance of two capital letters X 

 X. The ventral area is flattened, and there is 

 a fringe of bristles mixed with fleshy threads 

 extending the entire length of the body, at 

 the junction of the dorsal and ventral areas ; 

 the ventral surface and claspers are pale green. 

 The CHRYSALIS is slender, obtuse at the head, 

 and gradually tapering towards the anal 

 extremity, which is acutely pointed : its 

 whole surface is covered with a delicate purple 

 bloom like that on a ripe Orleans plum. 



The MOTH appears on. the wing in August, 

 and has been taken in the New Forest, Hamp- 

 shire, in Sussex, and in Berkshire. The 

 scientific name is Catocula promissa. ) 



719. The Lunar Double Stripe (Ophiodes lunaris). 



719. THE LUNAR DOUBLE STRIPE. The 

 palpi are porrected and rather distant, the 

 second joint slightly ascending, very long, and 

 densely clothed with short scales ; the ter- 

 minal joint is scarcely so long as the second : 

 it is directed straight forwards, slender, and 

 pointed ; the antenna? are slightly serrated in 

 the male, simple in the female; the fore wings 

 are ample, the costal margin somewhat arched, 

 the tip blunt, the hind margin waved, and the 

 wing-rays prominent ; their colour is pale 

 dingy-brown ; the orbicular is a small dark 

 spot ; the reniforni has a distinct dark circum- 

 scription, and a median area corresponding 

 with the general area of the wing ; there are 

 two narrow transverse lines 1'ather paler than 

 the ground-colour; the first of these is situ- 

 ated before the orbicular ; it is oblique, the 

 costal extremity being rather nearer the base 

 of the wing than the inner marginal extremity; 

 the second is situated beyond the reniforni, 

 and is bent both above the middle and at the 

 lower extremity, where the bend is almost 

 close to the inner margin, when it suddenly 

 turns towards the base of the wing and follows 

 the hind margin until it meets the first trans- 

 verse line ; the broad hind-marginal area is 

 darker than the median and basal areas, and 

 is intersected by an indistinct waved line : the 



