THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
Ill 
the legs and tongue. They are besides 
elongate, and very conical at the hind 
part. They are easily reared, and if the 
first year passes away, we must not on 
that account despair of seeing the perfect 
insect appear. They sometimes remain 
two, three and even four years before 
arriving at the perfect state. The perfect 
insects are very pretty, with delicate 
markings, and the colours strongly con- 
trasted. They fly with vivacity at dusk, 
over the flowers on which the female 
ought to deposit her eggs. (Vol. II. 
pp. 17, 18.) 
Hecalera. 
The larvae of this genus live entirely 
exposed, and keep on the summit of the 
stems of low plants, devouring the flowers 
and the buds, but, though they have 
some resemblance to the Diant/iacia, 
their partiality is for the Composites, and, 
as these plants have no capsules the 
larvae cannot lodge inside, and live en- 
tirely exposed, though confounded with 
the plant on account of the similarity of 
their colours. One of them ( dysodea ) is 
a veritable pest in our gardens, and when 
they attack a lettuce plant growing for 
seed the gardener runs a great risk of 
losing his seeds for next year, unless he 
takes the precaution of shaking the let- 
tuce plant over a cloth or an umbrella, 
and destroying all the larvae which fall 
into it; indeed, he ought to repeat this 
operation several times, for the eggs do 
not all hatch at the same time. How- 
ever, the later species of lettuce escape 
their attacks, for when once the middle 
of August is past, they are nearly all in 
the pupa state. 
The pupae are not furnished, as in 
Diantluecia , with abdominal buttons; 
they are only slightly swollen at this 
place. As for the perfect insects, they 
do not differ in their habits, but their 
colours are generally less bright, and 
remind one more of the genus Polia. 
(Vol. II. p. 27.) 
Polia. 
This genus has been rendered per- 
fectly homogeneous by the creation of 
my genera Hecatera and Aplecla. It is 
well distinguished from all the other 
Hadenidae, and has been disputed by 
nobody. 
The larvae are elongate, generally large 
and full, perfectly smooth and almost 
always green, with the ordinary lines 
white or yellow. They like to hold 
themselves against the stems, but, on the 
least touch, they coil up, and when we 
hold them in our hand their skin pro- 
duces a very perceptible sensation of 
cold. They live exposed on low plants, 
but not on the flowers or buds, as the 
Dianthacia and Hecatera; they simply 
eat the leaves, of which they cause a 
great consumption, as they are large and 
voracious. Happily, they seldom attack 
plants which are useful to us, and florists 
are the only people who have cause to 
regret the ravages of flavocincta. 
The pupae are as smooth as the larvae, 
and without any eminence. They are 
contained in earthy cocoons of very slight 
consistency. 
The perfect insects have a strong 
family resemblance; greyish white or 
ashy is their ordinary colour, and the 
lines and spots designed in grey-black, 
and, interrupted here and there, form 
detached clouds. The abdomen is long 
and heavy, especially that of the female ; 
hence the Polia fly but little, and with 
much less vivacity than the preceding 
genera. They vary much, and this cir- 
cumstance, joined to the uniformity of 
their markings, renders it very difficult 
to distinguish them from one another. 
(Vol. II. pp. 33,', 34.) 
Dasypolia. 
The only species which composes this 
genus has been thrown from one genus 
to another ; in fact, it has, at first sight, 
a resemblance with Crymocles, Luperina, 
Mamestra, and even with some Agroles , 
