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214 BRITISH MOTHS 
SPECIES 1.—NONAGRA TYPH. Puate XLVI., Fie. 1, 2, 3. 
Syvnonymes.— Noctua Typhe, Hiibner; Esper; Borkhausen ; Noctua nervosa, Esper (variety ?). 
Treitschke ; Haworth ; Stephens ; Wood, Ind. Ent., pl. 15, fig. 395. Noctua fraterna, Borkhausen (variety ?). 
Noctua arundinis, Fabricius. 
This may be considered as the type of the genus Nonagria; it varies from 1} to 2 inches in the expanse of 
the fore wings, which are of a pale reddish buff colour, the veins forming delicate white lines, margined on each 
side, more or less strongly, especially beyond the middle of the wing and along the great median vein, with 
brown ; the principal veins are dotted with black towards the base of the wing, and the two ordinary stigmata 
are slightly indicated in fine specimens by some slight fuscous markings ; parallel to the apical margin of the 
wing there rans a row of small black lanceolated spots, preceded by a curved row of very minute brown ones 
placed on the veins. The apical margin has a row of small black semilunar dots. The hind wings are paler, and 
very glossy, the margin rather darker, and an interrupted dark marginal line. 
“The larva is a most singular one, it is very elongate and slender, of a dirty brown colour, longitudinally 
striped up the back and sides with darker lines ; it does not confine itself to an upright position, as Duponchel 
observes, and Mr. Curtis repeats, but enters the stem of the Typha usually about eight inches above the water, 
and continues to devour the lateral portion to the water’s edge ; it then comes out and attacks another and another.” 
Ent. Mag. 1, 455. “It eats downwards, just in the centre, until it reaches nearly to the root, often some inches 
below the water ; it then turns round and proceeds upwards, enlarging its old track, and by the time it has arrived 
a few inches above the water it is full-grown. It there gnaws quite through the outside of the stem, closing the 
opening with a slight web of silk. It then spins web intermingling with the silk a large proportion of the 
fibres of the bulrush, which it has gnawed off, always undergoing the metamorphosis head downwards, and 
suspended within the web by a thread about two lines long, with a small cup-shaped termination, which invests 
the last segment of the body of the pupa. They remain about three or four weeks in the pupa.” Delta, 
in Entom. Mag.?1, 441, and 2, 452. The moth is by no means of rare occurrence where the bulrush 
grows, and Mr. S. Stevens has taken it from the end of July to the middle of September. 
SPECIES 2.—NONAGRIA CRASSICORNIS. Prare XLVI., Fie. 4—10. 
Synonymes.—Voctua crassicornis, Haworth ; Curtis; Stephens ; Nonagria canne, Stephens; Wood, Ind. Ent. pl. 15, fig. 358. 
Wood, Ind. Ent. pl. 15, fig. 357. [ Treitschke ?] 
Noctua pilicornis, Haworth, in Trans. Ent, Soc. Old Series, p. 336; Noctua alge, Esper ? 
Steph., Il. H. 3, pl. 20, fig. 1 ; Wood, Ind. Ent. pl. 15, fig. 356, (male). Noctua arundinis, Hiibner ? 
Noctua lutosa, Hubner ; Curtis; Stephens; Wood, Ind. Ent. Leucanea Bathyerga, Freyer ? * 
pl. 52, fig. 1668 (variety). 
The fine series of Nonagrize and Leucanie, captured by Mr. Stevens during the past season within a mile of 
my residence, has enabled us to speak with tolerable certainty respecting some, at least, of the supposed species of 
these insects, and more especially, in the present instance, when several species are thus proved to be but varieties of 
a very variable insect. ‘The expanse of the fore wings varies from 1$ to nearly 2 inches. 
They are of a pale 
reddish buff colour, slightly irrorated with dusky scales, especially along the median vein, and on each side of the 
veins towards the apex of the wings ; beyond the middle of the wings is a curved row of dark dots placed on the 
veins, which likewise extends across the hind wings, which are whitish in the females, but dusky white in the 
males: the antenne, in the latter sex, are strongly pilose. The cilia are pale lutescent. Mr. Stephens, in his 
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* Mr. E. Doubleday having sent specimens of the N. crassicornis to Paris, has been informed by M. Pierret that they are identical with Leucania 
Bathyerga, Freyer. As, however, Boisduval gives N. Vectis, of Curtis, as a synonyme of that species, I have added a mark of doubt to the 
quotation, 

