THE YOUNG NATUBALXST. 



171 



nearest the base of the wing, is very decidedly angulated. 



The Bordered Beauty moth [Epione apiciaria) may be met with in its 

 localities until the latter end of the month, and the Tissue (Scotosia dubitata) 

 and the rare ochreous coloured Gem moth (Camptogramma fluviata) are 

 other August geometrina. Besides these the second broods of the False 

 Mocha (Ephyra prorata), the Maiden's blush (E. punctaria) and the other 

 members of the genus Ephyra t as the clay triple-lines (E. trilinearia) , the 

 Mocha E. order onaria) , the Dingy Mocha (E. orbicitlaria), and the Birch 

 Mocha (E pendularia) also come out now. In order to distinguish these 

 species it is advisable to notice whether an ocellus is present or not on each 

 wing. If there be no ocellus and the wings are pale reddish grey, the proba- 

 bility is it is punctaria ; if the ocellated spots are small and indistinct, and 

 the ground colour of the wings reddish ochreous it is trilinearia ; if the 

 ocelli are distinctly visible in the centre of each wing it is one out of the four 

 other species. Should there be a broad dark grey band between the central 

 ocellus and the hind margin of each wing, and the ground colour of the 

 wings be light straw colour, the species is pretty certain to be omicronaria, 

 which I more minutely described at page 204 of the last volume of the 

 Young Naturalist. If the specimen has no dark grey band then we must be 

 guided by the colour in its identification, Porata is reddish grey, pendularia 

 is whitish grey, and the rare orhicularia is grey dusted with reddish. (See 

 Young Naturalist, vol. v. p. 204.) 



The Noctuina appearing in August are the pale grey CymatopJiora dilula, 

 which we may take at sugar or find at rest on the trunks of oak trees, the 

 dark grey or brown Nonagria fulva, which flies among the long grass in waste 

 places before dusk, the brownish ochreous N. geminipuncta, whose habitat 

 is the fens, the reddish looking N crassicornis, and the pale-veined ochreous 

 N. typhce, the pupse of which may be obtained in the early part of the month 

 by splitting open the stems of Typha latifolia in which it may be found 

 enclosed in a slight cocoon. It is more likely to be found in such plants as 

 present a withered appearance than in those which look healthy, and in those 

 which possess the flower spike it is highly probable there is no chrysalis. 

 The moth is a larger one than geminipuncta, some specimens measuring as 

 much as two inches in expanse, while in the smaller species the moths on the 

 average expand about an inch and a quarter. Crassicornis, which comes out 

 in the latter part of the month is about the same size as typhce. 



Other of the August Noctuina are the dark yellow Gortyna flavago, which 

 may be taken at light ; the pale rosy-brown Hgdroecia micacea, the rare grey 

 Aporophylla australis, the greyish ochreous Luperina testacea, the variable 

 Agroiis puta, some specimens of which are greyish ochreous with blackish 



