THE NOCTUINA. 
13 I 
caterpillars are remarkable for the ease with which they may 
be picked off the flowers and leaves on which they feed. The 
French call them Capuchins, on account of the peculiar hood- 
shaped projection. The caterpillars come out during the evening 
from amongst the leaves and flowers of the mullein and other 
scrophularious plants, where they have been hidden during the 
day. They are easily known, for they are of a greenish white 
colour, with a rather broad bright yellow transverse band on each 
segment, reaching from spiracle to spiracle ; the ordinary spots, 
which are black and very large, are in this band, and a black spot 
follows each spiracle, two others being below it. The face of the 
larva is yellowish and spotted with blue. They are of all sizes ; 
and as they grow large they seek the foot of the plant, and make 
a cocoon underground with some grains of sand and pieces of 
earth and silk. The moths often fly around the plants which 
nourish them in the caterpillar state, and are remarkable for their 
wood-like tints and russet brown colour, the tints passing insen- 
sibly into a more or less bright red. 
In the engraving the caterpillars are to be noticed upon the 
leaves of the mullein, and one of the moths, above the flower, 
shows its Capuchin hood very distinctly. 
A few of the Noctuina have metallic markings upon their 
wings, and one of them is called the Silver Y, or Plitsia gamma ; 
it has a silvery mark on its fore wings like the Greek y. The 
caterpillar, which is covered with but few hairs, is green, and has 
six white lines and two yellow ones upon it. When it is full 
grown it makes a small cocoon of pure silk, and then turns up 
a leaf and hides it. This plan of above ground hiding, so different 
to that usually employed by the Noctuina, also takes place in the 
genus Catocala. These moths are, as their name implies, “beau- 
tiful beneath when they are at rest they form a not particularly 
handsome flat grey triangle ; but when the hind wings, which are 
either red or greyish-blue, are exposed to view, the elegance of 
the insect is at once apparent. The larvae, which have already 
been noticed, are long, and they have their heads flattened and 
rather forked at the top, and the face is placed obliquely; they 
often have small humps, and they feed on trees, and rest attached 
to the trunks. The moths are of large size, and their thorax 
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