352 The Zoologist — August, 1866, 



of its food-plant which are prostrate on the ground ; but, when dis- 

 turbed, it elevates the anteriur part of its body, tucks its head in 

 tightly, and assumes an elegant and most Sphinx-like attitude, even 

 more striking than that of Sphinx Ligustri. If the food-plant be shaken 

 it falls to the ground in a tight compact ring. Head narrower than the 

 2nd segment, inlo which it is partially received when at rest : body 

 almost uniformly cylindrical, but sligluly attenuated at both ex- 

 tremities, the divisions of the segments decidedly but not deeply 

 marked : the surface smooth and velvety, but exhibiting, under a 

 lens, a few minute short hairs. Colour various ; that of the head and 

 body of the same hue ; the prevailing varieties are obscure grass- 

 green and olive-brown, as in so many other of our Noctuidae ; the 

 head sometimes plain, sometimes reticulated with darker markings : 

 the dorsal always darker than the ventral area of the body, and 

 divided immediately below the spiracles by a bright and very con- 

 spicuous stripe, which extends from the head into the anal claspers : 

 this stripe is bright ochreous-yellow, narrowly margined above by 

 dark umber-brown in the browner specimens, by black in the greener; 

 and margined below by a paler stripe, which in some specimens has 

 a tinge of brickdust red ; the dorsal surface has three indistinct nar- 

 row stripes darker than the ground colour, and dividing the dorsal 

 area into four equal parts : these three stripes are scarcely perceptible 

 in the greener specimens, but in some of the browner specimens are 

 very conspicuous, and interrupted at the divisions of the segments, 

 and each of the exterior ones is thus divided into a series of separate 

 markings, each of which is slightly oblique, and together they con- 

 stitute a tolerably regular series on each side of the back : on each 

 side of each segment, equidistant between the mediodorsal and the 

 interrupted stripe, is a double dot, half black and half white ; and the 

 entire surface is reticulated with smoky black, and dotted with while : 

 the ventral is not only paler than the dorsal area, but is slightly 

 transparent, and, like the dorsal area, is slightly reticulated with 

 darker, and dotted with lighter markings. I am indebted to Mr. 

 Campbell for an abundant supply of the larva of this species, which 

 do not appear to me recognizable by any previously published 

 description. 



Edward Newman. 

 Leominster, July 20, 1866. 



