300 INSECTA. 
Eresus, Lat.—Tuaysania, Dalm.—Nocrva, Fab., 
Where the wings are always extended and horizontal, and the last 
joint of the inferior palpi is long, slender, and naked. 
They are the largest Lepidoptera of this tribe, and with the excep- 
tion of one species peculiar to Spain—the Ophiusa scapulosa, Ochs. 
—are all foreign to Europe *. 
Nocrva, Fab., 
Where the last joint of the inferior palpi is very short, and covered 
with scales, as in the preceding Insects +. 
Among his Noctue proper, the caterpillars of some, and the greater 
number, have sixteen feet. Of these we will notice the 
N. Sponsa, Fab., Rees., Insect., [V, xix. Cinereous grey; tho- 
rax crested; wings lapping : upper surface of the superior ones 
obscure grey, with strongly undulated black streaks, and a whitish 
spot divided by several black lines; that of the inferior bright 
red, with two black bands; abdomen entirely cinereous. 
The caterpillar lives on the Oak; it is grey, with some obscure 
and irregular spots, and little tubercles ; - a hump on the fifth 
ring, surmounted bya yellow plate. This species and some others 
* Lat., Gen. Crust. et Insect., IV, 225; Consid. Gén. sur les Crust,. &c. 
The males of some species have pectinated antennz, and might constitute a particular 
subgenus, 
+ The genus Noctua of Fabricius, in Ochsenheimer’s History of the Lepidoptera of 
Europe, is divided into forty-two, from Acronicta to Huclidia inclusively. They are, 
for the most part, the divisions established in the Systematic Catalogue of the Lepi- 
doptera of Vienna, transformed into genera which the nature of our work forbids us 
to describe. That of Noctua, the Erebi being detached, appears to us to divide itself 
into two great parallel series, one of which is connected with these latter Lepidoptera, 
and the other with the Notodontz. The first is composed of those Noctuze whose 
caterpillars walk in the manner of Geomefre. Some have sixteen feet, of which the 
two or four anterior, of the intermediate membranous ones, are the shortest; the 
others have but twelve: such are the Plusig and the Chrysoptere, a genus distin- _ 
guished from the preceding by the size of the inferior palpi, which bend over the 
head. The second series will commence with species in which the palpi are propor- 
tionally larger, the antenne pectinated, and the proboscis is small; such are the 
Notodonta palpina (Odonptera palpinus) Lat., and the Calyptre of Ochsenheimer, or 
Calpes of Treitschke. Then will follow the genera Xylena, Cuculia, those Noctue in 
which the posterior margin of the superior wings is angular or dentated, those where 
the antennez are pectinated, and then those in which they are simple. We will ter- 
minate these latter species with such as have a smooth thorax, some of which, of the 
genus Erastia, Id., appear to lead to Pyralis. All the caterpillars of this second 
series have sixteen feet, and the intermediate membranous ones of equal size; they 
move in a straight line. The Chrosopteree—Plusia concha, Fisch., Entomog. Imp. 
Russ. I, Lepid., 1'V—with which we terminate the other series, are allied to Hermi- 
nia and Pyralis. Thus the two series seem to converge and end in this large section. 
The Lichenig or Cotocala of Ochsenheimer are large species, with almost horizontal 
wings, that appear naturally approximated, as well as Ophius, Brephos, &c. to Erebus. 
If we place them in the other series they destroy its harmony. 
The Bombyx cyllopoda, Dalm., Analect. Entom., 102, should form a new subgenus. 
It is very remarkable, inasmuch as the two posterior legs are shorter than the others, 
unarmed and almost useless for the purpose of locomotion. This Insect, on account 
of its pectinated antenne, distinct proboscis, and antennz which are twice the 
length of the head, should be placed near the genus Calyptra of Ochsenheimer, or our 
Herminiz. 
