134 CORYCIA PUNOTATA. 
- The only variety of the larva I ever saw I captured 
on blackthorn in August, 1863; it was of a pale 
bluish-green ground colour, the sides and belly being 
more of a whitish-green; the bright red dorsal spots 
of the type were replaced by a very indistinct, 
interrupted, reddish-brown line, and on either side of 
this there was, on each segment, a pale whitish dot, 
while the usual red spots on each side of the head 
were absent. Fortunately, Mr. Buckler, after having 
taken a figure and description of the larva, bred the 
moth during the next summer, and thus settled the 
question of its species beyond doubt. (John Hellins, 
H.M.M., April, 1865, I, 263.) | 
AVENTIA FLEXULA. 
Plate CXXIT, fig. 1. 
It is not often that I have taken on myself to make 
any remarks on the position of a species in any of the 
lists which from time to time are put forward, but in 
this case I cannot help saying a few words. 
It certainly seems that the imago has been a puzzle 
to systematists, for we find its position varied from 
one division to another repeatedly ; but I think that a 
knowledge of the larval state would have prevented all 
this uncertainty. 
Staudinger, to my mind, has come nearest the truth, 
in placing Aventia at the end of the Noctus, and among 
Catocala, Toxocampa, etc.; but I think he is wrong tn 
letting Toxocampa come between Catocala and Aventia ; 
and in my description below I shall italicise those 
points in the larva of Aventia which induce me to 
place it next to Catocala. 
The full-grown larva is seven- 1-eighths of an inch in 
length, widest at the ninth and tenth segments, the head 
full but rather less in bulk than the second segment ; 
the anal flap rounded; the body above 1s convex, but 
each segment a little swollen in the nuddle and scored 
across with two deep wrinkles, both at its hinder end; 
