248 



THE INSECT WORLD. 



Fig. 229 is the largest European moth, but never found farther 

 north than the latitude of Paris. Its wings are brown, waved, and 

 variegated with grey. Each of them has a large black eye-shaped 

 spot,"surrounded by a tawny circle, surmounted by one white semi- 

 circle, and by another of a reddish hue, the whole completely enclosed 



Fig. 229. — Saturnia pavonia-major, 



in a black circle. " These moths," says Geoffroy, " are very large ; 

 they look as if they were covered with fur, and, when they fly, one is 

 mclined to take them for birds." 



Saturnia pavonia-major comes from a very large caterpillar, which 

 IS of a beautiful green, with tubercles of turquoise blue, each of 

 which IS surmounted by seven stiff divergent hairs. This caterpillar 

 lives principally upon the elm, but it feeds also upon the leaves of the 

 pear, plum, and other trees. It spins a brown cocoon, formed of a 

 coarse silk of great strength. It is not until the following spring that 

 It becomes a moth. 



