36 TIGER MOTH. 



a central irregular dark marking. Hind-wings 

 yellow, with dark brown markings. The fore- 

 wings of the female are orange, with dark central 

 mark. The male is larger than the female, 

 and the colours of the sexes are so different 

 that they scarcely seem to belong to the same 

 species. The sjDan of wing is about an inch and 

 a half. 



Our next example is the well-known Tiger 

 Moth {Chelonia [or Arctia] caja). 



"Were not this Moth so common, it would take 

 high rank among entomologists, as one of the 

 first of the British insects, while its extreme 

 abundance renders it so common that it is utterly 

 despised by collectors. It is rather a large Moth, 

 the span of wings sometimes reaching nearly 

 three inches. 



The usual colour of the insect is as follows. 

 The fore-wings are rich dark brown, with cream- 

 coloured markings. The hind-wings are deep 

 crimson, sometimes with a touch of orange, with 

 several black spots. There is much variation 

 observable in diJOferent specimens in the markings 

 both of the fore and hind wings. In the former 

 the brown sometimes almost eats up the cream- 

 colour, and vice versa; and in the latter some- 

 times the crimson, sometimes the black, greatly 



