BUFF-TIP MOTH. 



227 



thirty to sixty, mostly on the upper side of a leaf, and are distin- 

 guishable by being convex and white above, smoke-coloured and 

 flat beneath, with a black dot in the middle of the convex part. 



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Female Buff-tip Moth, caterpillar, and pupa. 



The caterpillars hatch in about fourteen days, and at first 

 feed in company on the skin of the upper side and on the pulp 

 of the leaf. After eight days they undergo the first moult 

 (that is, cast the skin for the first time), and separate into 

 parties of eight or ten, which feed at the edge of a leaf, but, 

 when resting, place themselves side by side on its surface. 

 When full grown, they are about one inch and three-quarters 

 long, and sprinkled with silky hairs ; the general colour yellow, 

 with black head, black lines running from the head to the 

 tail, interrupted by a transverse orange band on each ring, 

 and a black horny plate above the tail-segment. 



When full fed, which is towards the beginning of autumn, 

 trees much infested by them may be known by the twigs of the 

 higher and outermost branches (or, in bad attacks, almost the 

 whole of the tree) being stripped of its leafage; the cater- 

 pillars then come down from the tree, and, without spinning 

 any cocoon, they change at the roots of herbage, amongst 

 fallen leaves, or on or just below the surface of the earth, to a 

 dark brown chrysalis, with two spines at the tail. 



The moth (figured above, life-size) comes out in June. The 

 fore wings are of various shades of pearly or purplish grey, 

 with rusty coloured and black markings, and a yellow or buff 

 patch at the tip, whence the moth takes its name of Buff-tip ; 

 the hind wings are whitish, with a dusky cloud towards the 

 middle. The head is ochreous, and the body between the 

 wings, and abdomen are also ochreous, but variously striped 

 or spotted with more dusky or rust-coloured tints. — (' Brit. 

 Moths,' &c.) 



q2 



