98 BREPHOS NOTHA. 



BREPHOS NOTHA. 



Plate CI, fig. 7. 



I had no opportunity of becoming acquainted with 

 this species till 1869, when Mr. W. H. Harwood 

 kindly sent me several young larvae ; these fed well, 

 but as I did not know how to provide for their pupa- 

 tion, my hopes of seeing the imago in 1870 were sadly 

 blighted. However, in that year Mr. W. R. Jeffrey 

 sent me two larvae from Saffron Walden, and as I 

 managed to accommodate them more suitably than 

 my former stock I succeeded in rearing two fine 

 moths. 



As the insects appear early in April, the eggs must 

 be laid some time during that month ; the larvae feed 

 on aspen (Populus tremula), spinning the leaves 

 together flat-wise for concealment; those I had in 

 1869, on June 2nd, were still small, barely half an 

 inch in length, but they grew fast after this, and 

 retired to change by the 29th. The dates I have for 

 the appearance of the imago are April 8th and 9th, 

 1870 (both cripples), and April 4th and 7th, 1871. 



The larva, up to half an inch in length, is very 

 dingy, nearly black, but bearing some exceedingly 

 fine, pale drab longitudinal lines ; after moulting, and 

 when about three-quarters of an inch in length, it 

 becomes less like a Noctua in form than it was before, 

 and more like a Geometer, both in form and manner of 

 progression ; its colour now is of a delicate green, 

 inclining in some instances to glaucous ; the longitu- 

 dinal lines become whitish-yellow ; the head and second 

 segment spotted with black ; the segmental folds 

 whitish-yellow. The growth now is rapid, and in 

 some individuals black spots appear on the sides, in a 

 day or two developing into stripes ; but in others no 

 more spots appear than those on the head and second 

 segment. 



The larva, when full-grown, is about one inch in 



