188 BUFF-TJP MOTH. 



nally, and bounded on the inner side by two parallel 

 rust-coloured lines, which are continued to the 

 inner edge of the wing : before the middle there is 

 likewise a double transverse rusty line, and a single 

 blackish one near the base. The fringe is yellowish, 

 variegated with rust-red, and preceded by a con- 

 tinuous series of small crescent-shaped marks of the 

 latter colour. The under wings are entirely yel- 

 lowish-white above, with a faint dusky suffusion on 

 the disk. The thorax, which is very wide and 

 strong, is ochrey-yellow, surrounded with two pa- 

 rallel lines of dark rust-red. The abdomen is 

 nearly of the same colour as the under wings, and 

 has a row of dusky marks, one on each segment, on 

 both sides. 



The caterpillars are blackish when young, but 

 when full grown they are yellow, with numerous 

 longitudinal black stripes on each segment inter- 

 rupted at the incisures ; the head is likewise black, 

 as well as the outer side of the legs. (PL xv. fig. 4.) 

 It is a gregarious larva, and consumes the leaves of 

 the elm (particularly the wych elm), the beech, the 

 oak, the lime, and the willow. By thus feeding in 

 company, they often strip a tree of a large portion 

 of its foliage in a very short time. When newly 

 excluded from the egg, they arrange themselves 

 side by side, in considerable detachments, and com- 

 mencing at one end of a leaf, eat their way to the 

 other, consuming the parenchyma or pulpy sub- 

 stance only half-way through. Having attained 

 their full growth, which is usually the case by 



