1869.] 



207 



The egg is unusually large for a Noctua, quite as large as that of Xylocampa, 

 litharhizx ; in shape round and full above, but rather flattened below ; the surface 

 is glistening, and ornamented with more than thirty slight longitudinal ribs, of 

 which more than half terminate before reaching the apex ; these ribs are connected 

 by very slight transverse reticulations. The colour at first is whitish, faintly tinged 

 with yellow, but it soon becomes blotched with brownish buff, in some specimens 

 irregularly, in others more regularly with a central spot at the top, and a broad 

 belt round the middle, and to the naked eye the egg now appears something the 

 colour of a grain of wheat : after a time the blotches turn to puce, and finally the 

 whole egg becomes pale purplish. 



The larva at first is of a semi-translucent purplish tint, with brown shining 

 head, and the usual dots black and distinct, each emitting a long wavy whitish 

 hair. The first food eaten is the empty egg-shell, but after the larva has begun to 

 eat leaves its colour soon becomes greenish. After a few days the colour changes 

 to brown, and the hairs show golden in the sunshine ; and after another moult the 

 brown becomes darker, and the transverse rows of tubercular dots show to the 

 naked eye like dark bands. When about f inch in length it assumes a waxy 

 shining appearance, reminding one of an Agrotis, with the head and collar shining 

 black, but after the next moult it comes out at first nearly black all over 3 this 

 nigritude does not, however, last long ; in a day or two the skin becomes paler, 

 and from this time till it attains the length of l^- inch the description is as follows : — 

 The ground colour ochreous-brown, with rather pale dorsal, sub-dorsal, and spira- 

 cular lines ; the head dark brown, a dark brown dull plate on second segment, also 

 on tip of the anal segment ; the tubercular dots black and very distinct, the first 

 dorsal pair of them in each segment after the fourth being placed in a blackish- 

 brown transversely oval patch, which interrupts the dorsal line j the body thinly 

 covered with very fine silky, brown hairs : in some specimens the oval dorsal 

 patches are replaced by pairs of oblong dots, separated by the dorsal line. The 

 length of the full-grown larva is li inch when at rest, but more than 1^ when in 

 motion, its powers of self- extension or contraction being much greater than those of 

 any other Noctua larva with which I am acquainted : the figure stoutest at the 

 twelfth segment, and thence tapering regularly to the head, which is the smallest 

 segment, and the thirteenth tapering rapidly behind, the anal pair of legs being 

 remarkably close together ; the skin is soft, and each segment swells out plump in 

 the middle, all the tubercles and the plate on 13th segment have disappeared, and 

 amongst the long fine silky hairs there is now a growth of shorter ones. The 

 colour is now purplish-brown, glistening in certain positions with a faint violet, 

 mealy gloss ; the pulsating, dorsal vessel shows as an indistinct paler line ; the 

 dark patches down the back have become in some instances a thick, clumsy X on 

 each segment, in others a pair of curved blotches, and there are also pairs of 

 smaller and fainter dots on segments 2, 3, and 4, those on 4 being the largest, and 

 of a square form ; the head is intensely black ; the region of the back is curiously 

 freckled with very fine blackish-brown curved marks, which, however, do not touch 

 the X marks, but allow them, as it were, to stand out more distinctly ; and in the 

 same way the sub-dorsal and spiracular lines are to be distinguished by the absence 

 of these freckles from the ground colour, rather than by any decided line of another 

 tint ; the spiracles small, black, and shining ; the belly paler than the back, and 

 somewhat tinged with green ; the hairs are all of a beautiful golden brown. The 

 habit of the larva seemed to be to hide itself by day, in spite of its silky, Bombyx- 

 like clothing, and to feed and move at night ; and I fancy its food, when at large, 

 must consist of low plants, rather than trees or shrubs, otherwise we should hear 

 of its captm*e. 



