2. Family: Noctuidae. 



The insects included under the term Noctuidae are of general distribution throughout the world 

 and exhibit among themselves in the imago stage immense variety in size, shape, and coloration, but are all 

 alike differentiated from other families, except the Agaristidae, by their neuration. The large majority are, 

 as the name implies, nightfliers, hiding by day in convenient shelters among trees, shrubs, and lowplants, 

 or resting with closed wings on the trunks of trees or on rocks, to which their coloration is assimilated, 

 and coming forth at dusk to feast upon the juices of flowers and fruits, and to search for their mates. 

 Those which fly by daj^, such as Heliothis and allied genera are brighter coloured and can hardly be 

 distinguished either by structure or habits from the Agaristidae, the separation of the latter being, I think, 

 purely one of convenience. 



Of the great bulk of the . species the larvae also feed by night and conceal themselves by day 

 under foliage close to the ground and in some cases by actually burrowing beneath it; these are, as a rule, 

 dull coloured and difficult of differentiation: on the other hand, those which feed by day, as Heliothis, 

 and some CuculUa are of brighter coloration and more easily distinguished. All are smooth or nearly so, 

 except those of the Acronictinae, which are variously adorned with tufts or series of hairs. These, as well 

 as the larvae of the last two groups, which comprise the Plusiae, the Gatocalae and the Deltoids, spin a 

 cocoon for pupation above ground, whereas the true Noctuae pupate in the earth. 



In the arrangement of groups in the Palaeavctic Noctuidae it has seemed advisable, in view of its 

 general familiarity and authority, to adhere, as far as may be, to the subdivision and sequence observed in 

 Staudinger and Rebel's Catalogue of 1901. But since the publication of that Catalogue the first 2 volumes 

 of Sir George Hampson's more elaborate and systematic review of the Noctuidae have appeared, and the 

 results of his researches will be utilized, with as small an amount of alteration in the sequence as may be 

 found possible. The groups employed by Staudinger are five in number: the Acronictinae , with hairy 

 larvae; the Trifidinae ,*) including the true Noctuae; the Gonopterinae , with angled outer margins to the 

 wings; the Quadrifidinae , comprising the largest members of the family; and the Hypeninae or Deltoids, 

 characterised by the largely developed palpi. 



The neuration of the Noctuidae is on the whole surprisingly constant. It is generally as follows: 

 vein 1 c is absent; vein 2 rises from well before the end of cell; vein 3 from close to 4; vein 5, the lower 

 radial, always nearer to 4 than to 6; vein 6 from the upper angle; veins 7, 8 and 9, 10 are stalked, 

 9 anastomosing with 8 to form the areole; 11 is free, from the cell. In the hindwing the costal anastomoses 

 with the subcostal at a point only, near base (abnormally, in certain instances, for one half of cell); 

 veins 3, 4 and 6, 7 generally from the ends of cell; vein 5 is either strong and perfect, or weak and 

 obsolescent. This difference in the structure of vein 5 of the hindwing affords a natural subdivision into 



2 groups; the first including the Acronictinae, Trifidinae and Gonopterinae, and the second the Plusiinae and 

 Hypeninae. In the Hypeninae this vein is straight and runs parallel to vein 4; in the other groups it is 

 more or less curved from its base, rising in the Plusiinae in close approximation to 4, and in the other 



3 from just below the centre of the discocellular. 



In the first 4 subfamilies the labial palpi are of moderate dimensions, more or less upturned, with 

 the second segment densely scaled, the third generally short; in the Hypeninae they are generally very 

 long, porrect horizontally or upcurved before face. The hind tibia always bears 2 pairs of spurs; the 

 tongue, frenul um, and ocelli are present. The eyes are generally smooth; but in some groups hairy, or 

 smooth but fringed with cilia ; they also van' in shape, being usually globose, but in certain cases narrowed. 

 In many cases the tibiae bear spines and claws as well as scales and tufts of hair. 



*) The terms Trifidue and Quadrifidae, — names originally given to denote the splitting up of the median vein of 

 forewing into 3 or 4 veinlets — mean three cleft and four cleft; the syllable fid — in these words is therefore an integral 

 part of each, and not a portion of the descriptive ending — idae. 



