NOCTUAS. 



473 



45*. The Handmaid (Naclia Ancilla). 



45*. THE HANDMAID. The palpi are slender 

 and distinctly porrected; the antennae are 

 strictly setaceous and of a dark brown colour ; 

 the eyes prominent and intensely black. The 

 fore wings ai-e ample ; their colour is ochra- 

 ceous semi-transparent brown, with four nearly 

 circular whibe spots on each : two of these are 

 closely approximate, placed transversely, and 

 equidistant from the costa and anal angle, but 

 slightly nearer the hind margin ; the others 

 are much smaller, and equidistant from the 

 uppermost of the two spots already described 

 and the costa : the hind wings are smaller, 

 unspotted, and slightly darker than the fore 

 win^s ; the crown of the head, collar, shoul- 



O * ' 



ders, and body are rich ochreous-yellow ; the 

 last has a medio-dorsal series of six black 

 spots. In general appearance and habit it 

 closely resembls a Lithosia,. 



The CATER PILLAR rests 011 epidendric lichens, 

 on which it feeds, in any position suited to its 

 shape. The head is quite as wide as the 

 second segment ; the body is slightly de- 

 pressed and warty, each wart emitting a fas- 

 cicle of radiating black hairs. The colour of 

 the head is black, of the body black, with five 

 yellow stripes, the broadest medio-dorsal and 

 bright yellow, very conspicuous, the others 

 lateral, narrow, and very pale : its appearance 

 altogether is that of a Lithosia caterpillar. 

 When full-fed it spins a white silken cocoon, 

 and therein changes to a CHRYSALIS. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June. 

 Mr. Wildman. possesses the only British speci- 

 men yet obtained : he took it near the sea- 

 coast of Sussex, and has kindly placed it in 

 my hands for description and figuring in this 

 work. (The scientific name is Nacliu An- 



58*. The Hoary Footman (Litliosia, caniold). 



58*. THE HOARY FOOTMAN. The fore 

 wings are silky and whitish-gray, with a very 

 slender yellow costal margin and a narrow 

 whitish stripe below the costal margin, and 

 adjoining it : the hind wings are very pale 

 gray : the head is yellow, the eyes intensely 

 black, the collar very bright yellow : the 

 thorax and body dove-colour. 



The female lays her EGGS in August, on the 

 Dutch clover (Trifolium repens), the Bird's- 

 foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus], and other 

 Leguminosce, on the leaves of which the 

 CATERPILLAR feeds. The young caterpillars 

 emerge in about ten days, and are then of a 

 pale yellowish colour, semi-transparent, and 

 bristling all over with hairs : they feed for 

 about six weeks, changing their skins four or 

 five times before they hybernate, eating very 

 little, growing very slowly, and not attaining 

 a length of more thau a third of an inch ; 

 about the middle or end of September they 

 retire towards the roots of the herbage, and 

 spinning a very slight web, remain concealed 

 during the winter ; in the spring they re- 

 ascend the food-plant, feeding principally by 

 night, and in damp weather retreating under 

 stones by day, but when the weather is warm 

 and the sun bright they mount on every 

 exposed stone and bask in its rays. The pro- 

 cess of changing the skin again goes on, and 

 really seems the chief occupation of life : nor 

 can I say that the number of moultings is by 

 any means constant; four or five changes 

 seem to be the allowance for the autumn, and 

 from five to eight for the vernal moulting : 

 at each moulting they seem to lose almost all 

 they had previously gained, crawling to the 

 top of their c.-ige considerably increased in 

 size, and coming down again most disappoint- 

 ingly small : they seem to grow alternately 

 larger and smaller. These -caterpillars are 



