The _Noctuina_ are a group of Lepidoptera of middling size, and generally found in woods, meadows, and gardens, where their caterpillars have lived. They seldom fly till about sunset, or during the night. Their upper wings are of a dark colour, with spots in the middle of a particular shape. Their lower wings are of various colours, often whitish, sometimes red or yellow. [Illustration: Fig. 248.--Noctua tegamon.] [Illustration: Fig. 249.--Noctua nebulosa.] We give representations of some of the species of this group.[69] _Noctua tegamon_, Fig. 248; _Noctua nebulosa_, Fig. 249; _Noctua musiva_, Fig. 250; _Noctua brunnea_, Fig. 251; _Catocala fraxini_, Fig. 252; _Catocala Americana_, Fig. 253; _Catocala paranympha_, Fig. 254; _Catocala nupta_, Fig. 255, the Red Underwing; and _Erebus strix_, Fig. 256. [69] In England it numbers about three hundred species. The larvæ are of diverse habits, but the majority feed on low plants; the moths are provided with a trunk, and are very partial to sweets.--ED. [Illustration: Fig. 250.--Noctua musiva.] [Illustration: Fig. 251.--Noctua brunnea.] The bodies of these moths are robust and sometimes massive, and are scaly rather than woolly. The thorax is sometimes bristling with hairy tufts. This genus includes 800 species, of which there are about 300 in France. The caterpillars of the _Noctuina_ are smooth or very slightly covered with hair, usually of a pale colour, and live on low plants, of which they devour, some the leaves, others the roots; then it is they are most destructive to agriculture. There are some of them which eat any caterpillars they may chance to meet, and even those of their own species, leaving nothing but the skin. Some of them surround themselves with a light cocoon before becoming chrysalides; others bury themselves in soft, well-pulverised soil. [Illustration: Fig. 252.--Catocala fraxini.] [Illustration: Fig. 253.--Catocala Americana.] [Illustration: Fig. 254.--Catocala paranympha.] [Illustration: Fig. 255.--Catocala nupta.] [Illustration: Fig. 256.--Erebus strix.] The family of _Geometrinæ_, or Geometers, comprises moths of a middling size, and usually flying after sunset and during the night.[70] They frequent the alleys of damp woods, where they become the prey of the _Libellulæ_[71] and other carnivorous insects. Their bodies and abdomens are slender, their wings large, thin, fragile, often of a dark colour, with brilliant markings. [70] few species fly in bright sunshine.--ED. [71] Dragon-flies.--ED. The caterpillars of the _Geometrinæ_ are known by the name of loopers or geometers. We have previously described their singular organisation. They are continually spinning a silken thread, which keeps them attached to the plant on which they live. If you touch the leaf which supports them they immediately let themselves fall. [Illustration: Fig. 257.--Looper hanging by its thread.] [Illustration: Fig. 258.--Seen at the side.]