5294 Insects. 



also several discoidal, testaceous, orbicular and reniform annuli: hind wings opaline, 

 very sparingly clothed with scales. The genus Laphygma was first characterised in 

 Guenee's ' Noctuelites,' vol. i. p. 156. Its characters are: — Body hardly stout. Pro- 

 boscis rather short. Palpi stout, short, ascending; third joint very minute. Antennae 

 simple, slender, about half the length of the body. Abdomen hardly extending beyond 

 the hind wings. Legs moderately stout; hind tibiae with four long spurs. Fore 

 wings rather narrow, straight in front, rounded at the tips, moderately oblique along 

 the exterior border; second inferior ray nearer to the first than to the third ; fourth 

 moderately remote. Hind wings delicate, pearly, semihyaline. There are nine de- 

 scribed species. The species exigua is well known as a native of the South of France, 

 Italy and Dalmatia. There are four European specimens in the cabinet of the British 

 Museum. The following synonyms may be useful: — Noctua exigua, Hubn. Samml. 

 Eur. Schmett. Noct. f. 362. Telmia exigua, Hubn. Verz. Schmett. 228, 2286. Cara- 

 drina exigua, Treit. Schmett. Eur. ii. 254 ; Suppl. x. 81. Dup. Hist. Nat. Lep. Fr. 

 iii. 45, pi. 75. Boisd. Ind. Meth. 138, 1112. Guen. Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. vi. 236. 

 Herr.-Schaff. Eur. Schmett. ii. 212, 99; ii. Noct. pi. 66 f f. 44. Laphygma exigua, 

 Noct. i. 158, 252. The first recorded British specimen of this insect was taken by 

 Mr. Wallace, in the Tsle of Wight; and a second has since been taken at Brighton, 

 by Mr. Cooke. — Edward Newman. 



Description of a British Noctua new to Science. — The beautiful insect described 

 below is a female, and was taken some years since by Mr. C. S. Gregson in Liverpool, 

 near the docks, and presented by him to me : it was, no doubt, accidentally imported. 

 I do not think it properly belongs to the genus Grammophora, but, as it bears a closer 

 resemblance to that genus than to any other, I place it there, rather than create a new 

 one : it has much the appearance of a Dipthera, hence the name I have chosen 

 for it. 



GeAMMOPHOEA D1PTHEE0IDES. 



Expansion of wings l£ inch: palpi recurved, nearly naked: antennae simple: 

 head small, with a whitish spot between the antennae : thorax small, slate gray : body 

 thin, tapering to a point from about the middle, of a gray-colour down the middle and 

 white at the sides, appears to have had a dark crest at the base, but being rather 

 wasted it is impossible to determine: wings white; first pair narrow: near the base is 

 an irregular dark gray line across the wing, between which and the extra-basal line is 

 a patch of deep slate-gray across the wing, broadest at the inner margin, with a waved 

 transverse black line down the centre: costa slate-gray, with a triangular interrupted 

 gray patch, the apex of which is produced between the stigmata and branches into 

 three waved lines to the inner margin, a large patch of deep slate-gray at the tip, and 

 another at the anal angle joined together by three waved lines : there is a small curved 

 black line from the tip, and another near the anal angle : stigmata large, both formed 

 by a gray line, the reniform one being clouded with gray in the centre : second pair 

 flossy, margined with gray, with a central lunule : cilia white: nervures distinct. — 

 Nicholas Cooke ; 6, Wenhvorlh Street, Everton, near Liverpool, September 22, 1856. 



Economy of Ilalias Quercana. — About the middle of August, 1853, while beating 

 for larvae, I knocked a female Halias Quercana out of one of the oak trees; it was 

 damaged a good deal : however, I always had a great fancy for Quercana, having 

 bred the perfect insect several times from the larva, so I put it into a pill-box, and I 

 did not look at it for two days after; when I did, I found that it had laid a great 

 number of eggs, and, without exaggeration, they were the most beautiful I had ever 



