LOCALITIES OF VARIOUS SPECIES. 69 



instances, but it will be sufficient to say, that we 

 never find the eggs of the small tortoise-shell but- 

 terfly {Vanessa urticce) on any plant but the nettle ; 

 its congener, the painted lady (Cynthia cardui, 

 Stephens), though it prefers the spear- thistle, is 

 sometimes found on the nettle, as is the comma 

 {Vanessa C. Album), though it seems to prefer the 

 hop ; while we have found the eggs of the lackey- 

 moth {Clisiocampa neustria) on almost every bush 

 and tree, from the sweetbriar to the oak, in woods, 

 hedges, orchards, and gardens, without any apparent 

 preference beyond the accident of the mother moth 

 alighting on a particular branch. In the same way 

 almost all those which deposit their eggs on salad 

 plants, such as the great tiger {Arctia Caja, Ste- 

 phens), will as readily select the nettle as the lettuce 

 or dandelion*. 



It is worthy of remark that our native insects 

 frequently make choice of exotic plants, by means of 

 the instinctive tact which enables them to discover 

 such as suit their purpose. The death's-head hawk 

 moth {Acherontia Atropos), for example, is now 

 usually found on the potatoe and the jasmine, but 

 previous to the introduction of these into Britain, it 

 probably confined itself to the bitter sweet {Sola nnm 

 dulcamara). W^ have known the moth taken in 

 Ayrshire, where this plant is abundant. An instance 

 in point has just occurred to us in one of the minute 

 leaf-miners. Upon the leaf of an exotic plant 

 {Cineraria cruenta') kept in a garden- pot in our 

 study, we were not a little surprised to observe the 

 tortuous windings of a miner, considerably different 

 in the outline from any we had before examined. 

 Though it was so late as December, also, the grub 

 seemed very active, and would sometimes mine nearly 

 half an inch of the leaf in the course of the day. It 



