82 MAMESTRA FURVA. 



glossy plate across the second segment is rather brighter 

 than the head, and is reddish-brown, its front margin 

 slightly waved and boldly defined with very dark brown, 

 the semicircular hind margin narrowly outlined with 

 the same dark brown ; this plate is well relieved from 

 the head by an interval of the pale skin between them 

 (generally conspicuous) ; the glossy plate on the anal 

 flap is also light reddish-brown, strongly outlined with 

 very dark brown in front, and more narrowly behind ; 

 the tubercular warty spots are rather small, smallest on 

 the middle segments of the body, not very shining, 

 and of reddish-brown colour, each bearing a hair ; their 

 number and arrangement precisely similar to those of 

 Xylophasia poly o don and lithoxylea /* the spiracles are 

 small, oval, and black ; the anterior legs reddish-brown, 

 the ventral prolegs fringed with dark brown hooks. 



The pupa is from six-eighths to seven-eighths of an 

 inch in length, moderately stout, and of the usual 

 Noctua figure ; close below the ends of the wing-covers 

 the abdomen begins gradually to taper, and there the 

 next two rings are more deeply cut than those towards 

 the tip, which has a blunt prolongation furnished with 

 a central pair of straight pointed spines, and farther 

 apart outside them another pair, thinner, shorter, and 

 curved a little outwards. The colour of the tip and 

 spines is black, all the rest a deep and rich red-brown, 

 the whole surface, with the exception of a narrow 

 band of punctures across the front of the more pro- 

 minent abdominal rings, very glossy. 



From the preceding account it will be seen at once 

 that furva, in the appearance and habits of its larva, 

 is much more of a Xylophasia than a Mamestra, a 

 resemblance noticed before by Guenee (tome v, p. 198) ; 

 but I am inclined to think that his description, as well 

 as that of Freyer, quoted in Stainton's Manual, does 

 not sufficiently give the points of distinction, which, 

 in the midst of much general resemblance, satisfac- 

 torily separate this larva from polyodon (of lateritia, 



* See ante, pp. 52 — 58. 



