*7 



Gen. PHAL/ENA. Fam. NOCTUA of u 

 Sect. FIEPIALUS. 



CHARACTER OF THE SECTION. 

 PALPI turned up, and set with hairs. 



ANTENNAE setaceous, lent, and sometimes a little serrated in the male, 

 ABDOMEN stretched out beyond the wings generally. 



Hepialus Ligniveren. Pi. 16. 



SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION. 



Noctua Hepialus, with yellow green anterior wings, divided into two patches by a waving band 

 of a faint ferruginous colour intersected by dusky, and some sharp marks of scarlet; some short 

 marks of the same colour on the anterior edge; posterior wings reddish flesh-colour; abdomen 

 long and dusky at the extremity. 



The larvae of this beautiful species of Noctua Hepialus feeds in a more sin- 

 gular way than any larvae Ave have yet treated of. It forms a lodgment or 

 chamber in the centre of a stem of a species of Casuarina, or the she oak of 

 the colony, and feeds on the bark and sappy wood directly about the entrance, 

 eating round the stem, and carefully hiding its dilapidations by weaving frag- 

 ments of wood and bark which it gnaws off, in a strong web; forming at 

 once a fortification and disguise of considerable bulk and thickness round the 

 stem, under which, in a winding cylindrical passage, the larva constantly 

 keeps its body while at work, alternately gnawing and weaving; but retires 

 to the chamber in the stem to repose. Across the mouth of this chamber it 

 spins a close web, and changes to a pupa in January; soon after which the 

 concealing fabric, to form which the larva took such pains, falls away. It 

 remains in the pupa state about twenty-five days; when by a strong vertical 

 motion of its joints and serrated rings, the pupa forces the web, and the moth 

 is produced, generally in February. The moth is shown at rest at 4; with the 

 wings expanded at 3; the larva, in a section of its chamber and disguise as 

 mentioned above, at 1 and 6; the pupa at 2. 

 It inhabits low she oaks in forest lands. 



Obs. There is a general unity of colour and delicate beauty in this insect, which no figure 

 can convey. We think it the most beautiful species we have seen of that tribe of moths sometimes 

 known in England by the name of Swifts. 



