DAY-FLYING MOTHS. i()i 



golden green V in the middle ; the thorax is green and 

 black ; the eye has a black coppery lustre (see Fig. 38). 



On approaching from the sea any open sandy shore 

 in the Isle of Cuba a copse wood is perceived, above 

 the coral reefs, forming a close and nearly impenetrable 

 belt, maybe ten or twenty yards wide, and composed 

 of almost one kind of tree, of aspect strange to the 

 European eye, the Coccoloba uvifei^a, the so-called Uvero 

 of the Spaniards. Immediately behind this belt an 

 immense variety of vegetation grows in the parched 

 sand — seaside shrubs in plenty, and what not, in 

 general festooned with the flowers of different lovely 

 climbing plants, every object quivering, as it were, 

 beneath the scorching sun — the plant of chief interest 

 to us being that technically titled Oiuphalea triandra. 



This, the Cob or Hog-nut of Jamaica, the Avellano of 

 the Island of Cuba, belongs to the family Euphorbiacea:?. 

 Sometimes it reaches the dimensions of a tree, fifteen 

 feet high. The part that concerns us is the leaves — 

 great, thick, heart-shaped things of leathery texture, 

 and a scabrous surface, of a pale green. The young 

 leaves, and the leaves of the young plants, although of 

 the same texture and colour, are of different form, being 

 deeply incised. 



During the heat of the day, on the upper side of the 

 mature entire leaves of this tree, often the caterpillar 

 of U. boisditvalii may^ be discovered torpidly reposing. 



