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aarfcer in length. As it approaclied its full growth the whitish lateral stripe 
ame more and more visible, and appeared divided into two by a blackish, rather 
srrupted line, running through it from the fifth to the anal segment: faint 
yish indications appeared of a sub-dorsal line, especially at the segmental divisions 
;n stretched out, and the black dorsal stripe was also made visible by its edging of 
yish : the sub-dorsal spines remained greenish-yellow with black tips and 
nches to the last, the front pair slanting a little over the head ; the head itself 
3k, and beset with short, obtuse black spines ; the lateral and sub-spiraoular 
s 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- 
eared amongst the leaves of the dog-violet, which had formed its whole 
tenance, with, I believe, only one exception, when I saw it eat out a small piece 
ti a leaf of primrose. 
On May 5th it had changed to a pupa, suspended by the tail to a circular mass 
ilk spun upon the side of the glass cylinder, hanging about three-quarters of 
inch fron the earth. 
The pupa, five-eighths of an inch in length, was moderately stout and rather 
rply pointed, and curved at the tip of the abdomen, and with a depression next 
thorax ; the wing-cases long in proportion and dull-brown in tint, with two rows 
)ale greyish dots near their margin; the spiked processes of head and back of 
fax pale greyish j the back of abdomen brown, with sub-dorsal rows of blackish 
relets, bordered on each side by a stripe of pinkish-gi-ey, and near the under- 
!S of abdomen another such stripe. 
The butterfly came forth on the morning of 23rd May.— Wm. BucivLEK, 
sworth. 
A few notes on the new Plusia. — Plusia ni, Hiibner (first noticed by Engramelle 
er the name L'ajoutee) is closely allied to our common P. gamma, for a variety 
irhich it might easily at first sight be passed over. It also presents some slight 
its of resemblance to P. interrogationis, and between these two species it will 
e to be 23laced in our lists and cabinets. As it can only be confounded with 
sma— and then, mind, only at first sight— I have thought it advisable to lay 
)re our readers some of the more striking points wherein it differs from that 
3ies, which I hope may call attention to its peculiarities, and perhaps lead to the 
3ction of other examples in our collections. 
The alar expanse is less than that of gamma, the fore-wings are less acute at 
ir apices, and lack the smooth, burnished, bronzy lustre of gamma ; or, to put it 
other way, the contrast between the ground-colour, which is blackish, and the 
•kings, which are, say, rosy-ferruginous, gives ni a duller and more mottled 
learance ; the letter-mark in the specimen before me is shaped somewhat as in 
iM-eMm.— thus x> • or t ^, but I find, on examining a series, that though this cha- 
;er is usually pretty constant, it is by no means invariably so. The hind-wing8 
much as with gamma, but blacker in hue : the palpi are smaller, the antennae 
ir ; and in the abdomen of the <? we find still better characters ; here the dorsal 
i is of a yellow-ochreous colour, and tufts of ochreous scales fringe the sides of 
last segments, terminating underneath the anal segments in an ochreous 
ch.— H. G. Knaggs, September 9th, J8G8. 
