1868.1 



127 



a quarter in length. As it approached its full growth the whitish lateral stripe 

 became more and more visible, and appeared divided into two by a blackish, rather 

 interrupted line, running through it from the fifth to the anal segment: faint 

 greyish indications appeared of a sub-dorsal line, especially at the segmental divisions 

 when stretched out, and the black dorsal stripe was also made visible by its edging of 

 greyish : the sub-dorsal spines remained greenish-yellow with black tips and 

 branches to the last, the front pair slanting a little over the head ; the head itself 

 black, and beset with short, obtuse black spines ; the lateral and sub-spiracular 

 rows of branched spines were brownish-black, and all slanted a little backwards. 



At the end of the month it seemed rather sluggish, and on May 3rd it dis- 

 appeared amongst the leaves of the dog-violet, which had formed its whole 

 sustenance, with, I believe, only one exception, when I saw it eat out a small piece 

 from a leaf of primrose. 



On May 5th it had changed to a pupa, suspended by the tail to a circular mass 

 of silk spun upon the side of the glass cylinder, hanging about three-quarters of 

 an inch fron the earth. 



The pupa, five-eighths of an inch in length, was moderately stout and rather 

 sharply pointed, and curved at the tip of the abdomen, and with a depression next 

 the thorax ; the wing-cases long in proportion and dull-brown in tint, with two rowa 

 of pale greyish dots near their margin ; the spiked processes of head and back of 

 thorax pale gi'eyish ; the back of abdomen brown, with sub-dorsal rows of blackish 

 spikelets, bordered on each side by a stripe of pinkish-grey, and near the under- 

 sides of abdomen another such stripe. 



The butterfly came forth on the morning of 23rd May. — Wm. Buckler, 

 Emsworth. 



A few notes on the new Plusia. — Plusia ni, Hiibner (first noticed by Engramelle 

 under the name L'ajoutee) is closely allied to our common P. gamma, for a variety 

 of which it might easily at first sight be passed over. It also presents some slight 

 points of resemblance to P. interrogatianis, a.udi between these two species it will 

 have to be placed in our lists and cabinets. As it can only be confounded with 

 gamma — and then, mind, only at first sight — I have thought it advisable to lay 

 before our readers some of the more striking points wherein it differs from that 

 species, which I hope may call attention to its peculiarities, and perhaps lead to the 

 detection of other examples in our collections. 



The alar expanse is less than that of gamma, the fore-wings are less acute at 

 their dlpices, and lack the smooth, burnished, bronzy lustre of gamtna ; or, to put it 

 the other way, the contrast between the ground-colour, which is blackish, and the 

 markings, which are, say, rosy-ferruginous, gives ni a duller and more mottled 

 appearance ; the letter-mark in the specimen before me is shaped somewhat as in 

 V-aureum — thus or 9 (j-, but I find, on examining a series, that though this cha- 

 racter is usually pretty constant, it is by no means invariably so. The hind-wings 

 ai*e much as with gamma, but blacker in hue : the palpi are smaller, the antennae 

 finer ; and in the abdomen of the S we find still better characters ; here the dorsal 

 tuft is of a.yellow-ochreous colour, and tufts of ochreous scales fringe the sides of 

 the last segments, tei-minating underneath the anal segments in an ochreous 

 patch.--H. G. Knaggs, September 9th, 1868. 



