THE SHORT-CLOAKED MOTH. I39 



NOLID^:. 



Some thirtesn or fourteen species occurring in Europe are 

 referred by Staudinger to this family. Only five of these occur 

 in the British Isles. The moths are of rather small size, less, 

 in fact, than some of the so-called " Micros," among which they 

 have been placed. Probably they may, for this reason, be over- 

 looked. They mostly sit head downwards on the trunks, 

 branches, or leaves of trees, sometimes on palings, but the rarer 

 ones hide themselves among the thick, low herbage. The time 

 of flight is after dark, and the moths occasionally visit the sugar 

 patch. The caterpillar has only eight false legs (prolegs), the 

 fii*st pair being the absent ones ; the body is clothed with tufts 

 of hair, the hairs of the front and rear tufts longer than the 

 others. When full grown it spins a more or less spindle-shaped, 

 toughish cocoon of silk mixed with the larval hairs, which is 

 usually coated with particles scraped from the surface of twig or 

 stem upon which it is spun up. 



The Short cloaked Moth [Nohi cncullatdla). 



The fore wings are whitish or greyish, with a dark, almost 

 black, patch at the base ; this patch is marked with whitish, and 

 is limited by the first cross line, which is black and curved ; the 

 second line, also black, is wavy and curved inwards towards 

 the front margin ; between these lines is a dusky central shade, 

 commencing in a blackish spot on the front margin, and some- 

 times forming an inward border to the second line : a raised 

 tuft of white, grey-capped scales on the basal patch, and two 

 other tufts beyond it and in a line with the front margin; hind 

 wings dark grey, paler towards the base (Plate 'j'^. 



The caterpillar is reddish brown, clothed with short greyish 

 hairs ; the spots and central line on the back are whitish. It 



