702 



INSECTS ABROAD. 



ning Moth. There is a tuft of yellow at the base of the thorax, 

 which, with the abdomen, is brown. 



This is really a difficult insect to describe. As long as there 

 is any definite pattern, that j^attern can be traced. As long as 

 there is any definite colour, that colour can be indicated. But 

 there are cases, as with the present insect, where exists neither 

 definite pattern nor colour, and where the powers of description 

 are utterly baffled. Without a figure no description could be 

 of the least service, and, even with it, I can only offer the 

 following approximation to a description. 



Fig. 438.— Elphos hymenaria 

 (Yellow, brown, grey, and black.) 



Take your Moth and wet it. Take some pepper-boxes, and fill 

 them respectively with raw and burnt umber, gamboge, Indian 

 ink, Chinese white, and sepia. Shake them indiscriminately 

 over the Moth, let the colours all run together on the wet sur- 

 face, and these will be a good representation of the ordinary 

 colouring of this insect. Perhaps the yellow may be the pre- 

 dominant colour, or perhaps the white, or the black. It does 



