112 European Butterflies and Moths. 



back and sides, four yellow tufts of hair on the back, and two longer black tufts on each of 

 the 5th, nth, and 12th segments. It lives on Cladiuiii Gerinanicum and other reeds in June 

 and July. 



FAMILY IV.— COSSIDyE. 



Body stout, or rather slender, and covered with flattened hair ; abdomen long, extending 

 for at least half its length beyond the anal angle. Wings thick, the fore-wings a little broader 

 behind, generally rounded at the tip, with twelve nervures, a narrow discoidal cell, and an accessory 

 cellule ; hind-wings short and rounded, with eight nervures. Head contracted, eyes naked, palpi 

 small, antennre never more than one-third of the length of the fore-wings, with two rows of 

 lamellae or pectinations in the male. The tongue is wanting ; the legs are short, the thighs 

 are hairy, and the tibi^ have a leaf-like appendage. The sixteen-legged larvae are naked, with 

 only a few scattered hairs ; the jaws are strong, and, as they live in the interior of plants, the 

 prolegs are coronated. They hybernate twice, and form a cocoon mixed with splinters^ in the 

 interior of their food-plant, and change there into a pupa provided with spines on the hinder 

 segments of the abdomen, by which they push the pupa half out of the plant before they quit 

 it. The moths fly at night, hold their wings sloping when at rest, and may often be found 

 on the trunk or stem of their food- plants after emerging. The presence of the larvae may 

 be discovered by the rejected sawdust and the exuding sap, and as they devour wood, they 

 must be kept in earthen vessels closed with wire-gauze. The moths are very liable to 

 become greasy in a collection. 



GENUS I. — COSSUS (FABR.). 



Large stout moths, with coarsely-scaled wings ; the fore-wings grey, with black undulating 

 lines; or white, with a dark band-like transverse spot. The larvae are smooth, with wrinkles on the 

 sides, and a flat head. When young they live under the bark of trees, and afterwards eat into 

 the wood. The moths appear in June and July, emerging from their cocoons towards evening. 



* I. C. Ligiiiperda (Fabr.), {Goat Moth). — Fore-wings varied with greyish-brown and pale grey, 

 with many black wavy transverse lines running into one another, of which three or four are thicker 

 and more sharply defined ; hind-wings brownish-grey, the hind margin slightly suffused ; vertex 

 and collar greyish-yellow. Expands from 3 to nearly 4 inches. Common in Europe and Western 

 Asia. The larva is dirty flesh-colour, with the back dark red. It lives in trees, especially poplars 

 and willows. The transformations are figured at PI. 26, Fig. i, a — c. {C. Tercbra, W. V., has more 

 pointed fore-wings, of a more uniform dark grey, with two broad transverse lines ; head and 

 thorax dark grey. A scarce species in Eastern Europe; the larva is dirty white, with the back 

 yellowish, and lives in poplars. C. Balcanicus, Led., from Bulgaria, is somewhat intermediate 

 between this species and the last, but is paler and more unicolorous than either, both above and 

 below.) 



2. C. Ceestrum (Hiibn.). — Fore-wings with the tip nearly rectangular ; whitish, with a large 

 brownish transverse lunule beyond the middle, which is waved with blackish, and edged behind 

 with little angular black spots ; hind-wings brownish-grey. A scarce insect in South Europe and 

 Armenia. {C. T/irips, Hiibn., from South Russia and Siberia, is fawn-colour, with obscure 

 markings ; the fore-wings have the discal area brownish, and the abdomen and hind-wings are 

 testaceous.) 



