NOCTUA BELLA. 41 



double dark stripes are repeated along the side with 

 a similar fine drab line running through them ; along 

 the middle space of the side it is much freckled with 

 blackish-brown. The spiracles are blackish with drab 

 centres, but hardly to be noticed, as they appear black 

 to the unaided eye; immediately beneath them was a 

 stripe of pale drab, paler still at its edges, and freckled 

 and streaked along the middle with greyish-brown. 

 The belly is brown, freckled with minute atoms of 

 drab ; the plate on the second segment is not shining, 

 but pale brown, sparingly freckled with darker. The 

 whole skin of the rest of the body is rather soft and 

 velvety ; the head is of a warm brown, with a blackish- 

 brown stripe down the front of each lobe, and is very 

 shining ; the anterior legs are brown, and the ventral 

 Jegs rather a pale brown tipped with darker brown 

 hooks. 



This larva ceased to feed on March 24th, and spun 

 itself up in a dock leaf on the surface of the earth on 

 the 26th, and the moth, a female, appeared on the 

 27th May, 1874. (W. B., 1874, Note Book II, 53.) 



NOCTUA UMBR0SA. 



Plate LXXVIII, fig. 2. 



The larva of this species having eluded the search 

 of myself and many of my friends for a number of 

 years, a belief gained ground with us that it probably 

 closely resembled that early pest N. xanthographa; 

 and this belief was strengthened three or four years 

 ago by the fact of Mr. Harwood having bred one 

 specimen of N. umbrosa from a lot of larvae which he 

 had collected as those of N. xanthographa. 



I have at length been able to prove our surmise to 

 be correct, thanks to Mr. George Norman, to whom I 

 feel deeply indebted for his taking much pains in 

 obtaining and sending me from Forres, three separate 

 batches of eggs of N. umbrosa, on July 27th, 28th, 



