120 CATOCALA PRAXINI. 



hinder part of each segment, with minute brown dots ; 

 head pale pink, surrounded at the back with a con- 

 spicuous band of dark damson-plum colour ; this band 

 narrows off to a point on each side the face ; the upper 

 part of the face is also reticulated with this colour, 

 but towards the mandibles are several dark brown 

 streaks, whilst on each mandible and also on each 

 side is a dark brown spot ; dorsal stripe very narrow, 

 green ; spiracles oblong-oval, black, encircled with 

 greyish- white ; the hump on the ninth segment is 

 darker than the ground-colour, the dark colour ex- 

 tending backwards, and forming a somewhat horse- 

 shoe-shaped mark ; the back of the ridge on the 

 twelfth segment is also of this dark colour ; segmental 

 divisions of the same pink colour as the head. 



Ventral surface very pale greenish-white, with a 

 large and conspicuous, nearly triangular, almost black 

 markon the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh 

 segments, and there are paler, more rust-coloured 

 marks on the centre of the third and fourth segments ; 

 legs and prolegs of the same colour as the ground of 

 the ventral area, the anterior ones being tinged on the 

 outside with pink ; hairs greyish-white. 



In the half-grown larva the head is considerably 

 wider than any of the following segments, and the 

 colours generally are of a darker shade all through. 

 The head is of a darker pink, but this colour is nearly 

 lost in the broad, dull, black band at the back, and the 

 greater amount of equally dark reticulation on the 

 face ; the ground on the dorsal area is much browner, 

 and the narrow dorsal line is almost black ; the tuber- 

 cles, which are not noticeable in the adult larva, are 

 distinct, ochreous-yellow ; the spiracles are not so 

 dark, and consequently much less conspicuous ; whilst 

 the ventral surface is pinkish-grey, and the outside 

 of both anterior legs and prolegs, together with the 

 hairs, pink. 



The species feeds on ash and poplar, and both young 

 and adult larvse rest at full length on the twigs or 



