THE NOCTUID^E. 109 



that is, neither suspending itself in the air, nor en- 

 closed in a cocoon, but buried deep in the ground. 

 The habits of the perfect insects themselves are 

 usually, as their name indicates, nocturnal, although 

 not exclusively so, as many of them flit about in the 

 sunshine, especially towards the time of its setting, 

 and as the shades of evening fall ; but this is doubt- 

 lessly preludatory to their nocturnal gambols. We 

 consequently find their apparel in the strictest accord- 

 ance with these peculiarities ; and nature here again ex- 

 hibits its rigid rule of strict economy, for it will not 

 even waste a shade of colour that has not its specific 

 object and purpose. The majority of these insects are 

 either sombre or very plain in their clothing, browns, 

 drabs, and greys, being the predominant tints ; yet, 

 although so obscure, these tints are elegantly diversified 

 by spots and markings, which amply compensate for 

 greater and gayer varieties of colour, and thus evince a 

 further corroboration of the favouritism of Nature which 

 is every where so prominently exhibited towards this 

 large and beautiful order of insects. In those, however, 

 which are more diurnal in their habits, we observe oc- 

 casionally a departure from this sobriety, which has 

 acquired for many of the former the name of quakers. 

 Thus, in the Plusice, we see the wings studded with 

 drops of gold and silver. In the Xanthice, the colours 

 are shades of yellow, orange, straw, and lemon ; in Ca~ 

 tacola, the under -wings are of rich crimsons and reds, 

 contrasted with a bar of intense black ; in Bryophila and 

 Diphthera, the superior wings are elegantly variegated 

 with green. There is so much diversity in the structure 

 of the larvae of this group, that we may almost assume this 

 to be its typical characteristic ; and this would point to 

 Acronycta, as the most typical genus, from the great 

 differences it exhibits within itself in this preliminary 

 stage of developement : and it is a remarkable fact, that 

 even the most experienced entomologists are sometimes 

 baffled in determining the specific differences of perfect 

 insects in this group, which have their larvae extremely 



