15 



Gen. PHALiENA. Fam. NOCTUA. 

 Sect. CRYPTOPHASA. 



FAMILY CHARACTER. 



PALPI, somewhat flattened, a little inclined upwards and covered with hairs. 

 TONGUE spiral, generally of considerable length. 



ANTENNJE a simple thread in loth sexes, but sometimes a little woolly in the male. 

 They fly and feed for the most part ly night. 



CHARACTER OF THE SECTION. 



PALPI curved upwards before the eyes, divergent, round and terminating in a point. 



AhTENNJE thread shaped, in both sexes. 



TONGUE spiral, short, and sometimes scarcely discernalle. 



Cryptophasa Strigata. PI. 14. 



SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION. 



Noctua Cryptophasa with light wainscot coloured wings; anterior with a brown stripe from 

 the shoulder to the end. Posterior wings with a broad silvery fringe: the whole insect silvery, 

 especially near the stripe. 



The larva of this little Noctua is provident, and wood-boring: our specimen 

 had entered a sappy branch or slender stem of the Banksia Serrata, where it 

 had formed a cell, having its entrance barricaded with a fabric of interwoven 

 web and excrement; under which the larva conveys its food, by nightly per- 

 ambulations, that is, so much of a leaf of the above tree as it can conveniently 

 convey away at a time, and which it forces part down its cell, where, in secu- 

 rit}% it feeds and sleeps during the whole day. Within this dwelling it trans- 

 forms to a pupa, generally in January ; remains twenty-two days in that state, 

 and is on the wing in February, and is then found on Banksia shrubs near 

 Sidney. The male is figured at 5; the female at 4; the pupa, with the wood 

 laid open at 2; the larva at 1; and the barricado at 5. 



