20 AGROTIS NIGRICANS 



Subdorsal line greenish-black, in some varieties 

 quite black, and edged below with a narrow line of 

 dirty whitish-green, then a broad stripe of blackish- 

 green, followed by another dirty whitish-green, narrow 

 and slightly interrupted, line, and then another darker 

 broad stripe of blackish-green, along the lower edge 

 of which are the black spiracles. A double whitish 

 stripe follows, extending down the sides of the anal 

 pro-legs, which is made by a line of pale dirty greyish- 

 green, being the colour of the belly and pro-legs, 

 running through the middle of the white. The ordi- 

 nary shining warty spots black. The head greyish- 

 brown, mottled, and streaked with black. A dark 

 brown shining plate on the back of the second seg- 

 ment, with three paler greyish lines. 



Some of these larvse presented great resemblance 

 to several of the varieties of Agrotis tritici, but the 

 double white stripe above the feet, and black warty 

 dots, give distinct characters to the larvse of 

 A. nigricans. (W. B., E.M.M., II, 162, Dec, 1865.) 



Agrotis aquilina. 



Plate LXXII, fig. 3. 



Larvse of this species, more than half-grown, were 

 kindly obtained for me on the 15th May, 1865, by 

 Mr. T. Last, a naturalist, of Borough Road, Ipswich, 

 who informed me they were taken under tufts of the 

 common plantain, and advised their having the narrow- 

 leaved plantain as a change of diet ; and from a later 

 communication I learnt that they would eat various 

 low plants, such as poppies, chickweed, knot-grass, 

 and even onions, and that no Galium existed within 

 half a mile of their locality, and that in rearing them 

 in captivity, a change and variety in food-plants would 

 be essential to their doing well. The few I had, 

 however, did remarkably well on clover and Plantago 

 lanceolata ; they burrowed after the manner of many 



