THE SUBSTITUTE. 
215 
the evening ; the others fly at 
dusk. The Tripfuence are never 
sluggish like the Hadenidce or the 
Orthosidte, and when we wish to 
seize them they slide rapidly from 
beneath the fingers instead of re- 
maining motionless under the pin 
which threatens them ; indeed all 
the Noc.tucB of which the anterior 
wings are not sloping are gene- 
rally more lively and more diffi- 
cult to catch than those of which 
the wings are deflected. (Vol. I., 
pp. 315—317. 
Noctua. 
It is to this genus that the 
ancient Linnean name remains, 
and all entomologists have long 
been agreed on this point, but its 
composition has varied, and spe- 
cies of the ancient genera Ortho- 
sia and Agrotis have been suc- 
cessively admitted and removed ; 
latterly it had become nearly 
settled, but an innovation of the 
English authors had been gene- 
rally adopted ; this consisted of 
forming a genus to itself of Xan- 
thographa, which Mr. Stephens 
had removed from Myihimna of 
Ochsenbeimer, but after due con- 
sideration this species did not 
appear to me to differ generically 
from the true Noctua, and I re- 
store it here. 
It will be seen that I have 
divided the genus Noctua into 
nine groups, which do not differ 
less from one another than those 
which I have established in the 
genus Agrotis, but which are in- 
evitably linked together. I will 
cite as the most striking group 1, 
composed of species of grey co- 
lour, with the black marks more or 
Hess distinct: group 3, which 
forms a portion of M. Boisduval’s 
genus Chersotis, and of which the 
anterior wings are dull red edged 
with a white costal streak : group 
5, in which the males have the 
antennae strongly ciliated : group 
7, of which the first section has no 
spines on the anterior tibiae, and 
the second section only has them 
on the intermediate legs, though 
these species otherwise resemble 
the other Noctucc : group 8, which 
has hitherto formed a portion of 
Onhosia, but which has all the 
characters of this genus: and 
finally, group 10 or Xanthogra- 
pha. 
The larvae of Noctua have no- 
thing vermiform about them ; 
they are thick, cylindrical, entirely 
smooth, velvety, generally marked 
with rather pretty patterns, but 
rarely of a green colour, the spi- 
racular line is always very visible, 
and the subdorsal lines are fre- 
quently surrounded by black spots, 
which on the twelfth segment are 
wedge-shaped as in Triphama. 
These larva all live exclusively on 
low plants, under which they are 
concealed during the day, but 
without burying themselves in the 
earth, and never feeding on the 
roots ; they generally pass the en- 
tire winter in this stage, and do 
not go into the ground to change 
to chrysalis till the spring; they 
appear in the perfect state towards 
the middle of summer, or more 
rarely in autumn. 
Arrived at the perfect state, the 
Noctucc resume their relationship 
with Agrotis ; some of them imi- 
tate this genus in markings, and 
all share the manners and habits 
of the species. (Vol. I., p. 322.) 
[To be continued.] 
