BUFF-TIP MOTH. d 



The moth is usually from two and a quarter to two and a half 

 inches in expanse of the fore wings, which are of a pearly grey ground 

 colour, inclining to a more purple tint towards the fore edge, and a 

 silvery grey at the base, very near which is a transverse brown line, 

 and a little beyond this is a transverse bar formed of three brown 

 lines. Another brown bar starts near the tip of the wing, and after 

 making a semicircular curve (see figure, p. 1), crosses the wing trans- 

 versely with a zig-zag line. Between this and the brown bar the wing 

 is marked with many fine-waved transverse lines, and outside the 

 semicircular curve the tip of the wing is occupied by a large ochreous 

 or buff-coloured blotch, whence the moth takes its name of "Buff-tip." 

 The hind wings are yellowish white, somewhat clouded towards the 

 middle. The head is ochreous ; the body between the wings with a 

 double brown line on each side and behind, and the abdomen dingy 

 ochreous. 



The moths are to be found pairing about the beginning of June. 

 Directly afterwards, the eggs are stated* to be laid, up to as many as 

 thirty to sixty in a patch, mostly on the upper side of a leaf. These 

 are convex and white or greenish above, with a black dot in the middle 

 of the convex portion ; beneath they are flat and of a smoky colour. 



The caterpillars hatch in about a fortnight, and at first feed 

 together on the upper skin and tissue of the leaf, leaving the veins 

 uninjured. After eight days they moult, and then separate into little 

 companies of six to ten, each party betaking itself to the tip of a leaf, 

 and feeding at the edge in the common caterpillar manner ; towards 

 the end of July they are full-fed, and their presence may be known by 

 the mischief they have caused, the various broods having stripped the 

 leafage from the boughs where they have established themselves "as 

 bare as if in the depth of winter." 



When hatched, the caterpillars have large shining black heads and 

 narrower yellow bodies, with soft hairs, and a series of black spots, 

 which are most noticeable along the middle of the back. When full- 

 grown, the colour is more varied. The head is still black, but it is 

 covered with minute punctures, and has a yellow mark, like a V 

 reversed on the face ; it is covered with fine silky hairs, as is also the 

 body, which is now of a yellow ground colour, marked along the sides 

 with an orange transverse streak about the middle of each segment, 

 and, alternately with these, with an ill-defined and sometimes scarcely 

 observable whitish mark on the segmental division. Nine longitudinal 

 stripes of more or less elongate black blotches run along the back and 



* 1 have not myself had the opportunity of observing the whole life-history, 

 and therefore give (with due acknowledgment) some of the main points recorded 

 by Newman in his detailed account of this species, given in ' British Moths,' 

 pp. 219, 220. 



B 2 



