This is a very rare moth in England, but is found over the greater part of the world. It expands about one and a half inches. The fore-wings are a brownish yellow, with darker indistinct markings. The hind-wings are lighter yellow in colour, with a dark semi-lunar spot in the middle, and have a dark marginal border. The antennæ are long and fine. The caterpillar was found on the potato-plant and proved to be one of the cannibal species. It fed occasionally on the food provided, but seemed generally to prefer its companions in captivity, feeding at night, and so had to be separated from them. The larva is reddish brown in colour, with a yellowish stripe on the sides, and it is very commonly found in Teneriffe during the early spring months.
HELIOTHIS DIPSACEA.
This is a small moth, about one to one and a half inches in expanse, and found throughout the greater part of Europe, Northern and Western Asia, and North Africa. It frequents high ground in the spring and summer, living in rough places and in clover-fields. The fore-wings are of light olive-brown shade, with dark markings across them. The hind-wings are dark olive-brown, fringed with yellow, and having two large yellow uneven spots about the centre, with a similar one on the brown margin. The body is stout, the antennæ long and fine. The larva is green or rust-colour, with white lines on the back and sides.
PRODENIA LITTORALIS.
A moth, expanding about one inch and a half, found in Africa, but not in England. It has brown-grey fore-wings, with opalescent markings. The hind-wings are of a shining opalescent white. The larva is brown, feeds on the potato-plant, and appears during the early spring. The moths are seen a month or six weeks later; those bred in captivity appear simultaneously with those out of doors.
PERIDROMA SAUCIA.
Rather a fine moth, inhabiting Europe, though not found in England. It expands about two inches or more. The fore-wings are dark brown, sometimes suffused with a reddish tinge at the upper margin. The hind-wings are of a greyish pearl-white colour, veined with brown, with a brown shade fringing the margins. The larva is greyish-brown, and feeds on the potato-plant, where it is found during the late winter and early spring. The average time for turning from the larva to the moth stage is from six to eight weeks.
TARACHE LUCIDA.
Plate IV.—Fig. 8.
This is a small moth, not very commonly found in Teneriffe. It is met with by day along the coast, and up to an altitude of 2000 feet or more in rough rocky places, in April and up to June or July. The prevailing colour is a blue-grey. The fore-wings have a large square patch of white on the upper margin, and a smaller dot of the same colour towards the middle. The hind-wings are fringed with white, and have two or three patches of the same colour along their margins. In the male, the white on both wings is increased towards the base. It is not an English species, but is found in Europe and along the Mediterranean. The larva is a green or brownish grey, with three dark double lines on the thoracic segments; tufted, and with a white line on the back on segments 5 to 7, and with a dark stripe on the back, and a whitish line on the sides of the remaining segments.