482 INSECTS AT HOME. 



other marks of the wing are also of brown, but not quite so 

 dark. The edges of the hind margins of the upper wings are 

 deeply scalloped. The lower wings are slightly scalloped, and 

 are of a pale yellowish grey and crossed by two very sliglit 

 waved bands of reddish brown. Towards the hind margins 

 they are suffused with a slight pinkish tint. The thorax is 

 covered with long hair, which in front stands out like the 

 double ruff of Elizabeth's time. Then comes a wedge-shaped 

 ridge in the middle of the thorax, and then two rather large 

 tufts at the back. The colour of these tufts is soft umber 

 brown, tipped with a darker and warmer brown. 



The caterpillar of the Angle-shades is represented at Fig. h 

 of the same Woodcut. Its colour varies from bright green 

 to dark olive green or olive brown, profusely sprinkled with 

 whitish dots not very well defined. There are three greyish 

 lines along the body, and the spiracles are white, surrounded 

 with a black line. It feeds on various herbs and flowers, espe- 

 cially groundsel and primrose, and is full-fed about May, when 

 it seeks the ground, and there spins a very slight cocoon. 

 There are two broods of this pretty Moth — one towards the 

 end of May, and the other at the end of autumn. 



The specific name meticulosa signifies fearful or timorous, 

 but I never could find out the reason for giving such a name 

 to the insect. The Angle-shades is not a whit more timorous 

 than Moths in general, and though it has no distinctive 

 boldness, it certainly has no distinctive timidity. 



On "Woodcut LV. Fig. 3, is represented the Moth which is 

 appropriately called the Burnished Brass (Plusia chrysitis). 

 in consequence of the metallic colouring of the wings. The 

 specific name of chrysitis, or gilded, is given to it for the 

 same reason. This insect belongs to another family of the 

 Noctuge, namely, the Quadrifidse or Plusidge. 



The colour of the upper wings is bright golden green, which 

 must be seen in a side light before its beauty can be properly 

 distinguished. There is a large and nearly triangular blotch 

 of brown on the middle of the wing, the base of the triangle 

 resting on the costal margin, another patch of the same colour 

 at the base, and a third on the inner margin, just below the 

 large triangular patch. These two often coalesce, as is the 



