THE LOOPERS 



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angle shades (Brotolontia meticulosa), which is one of the most beautiful, as it is one 

 of the commonest of British moths, the larva is delicate green, smooth, and velvety, 

 thickly speckled with minute white spots. It feeds on groundsel. The perfect in- 

 sect, which appears on the wing in May and June, and a second brood in September, 

 is common throughout Europe. In the prettily-marked species known as the 

 feathered gothic (Neuronia popularis} the fore- wings are dark brown, with white 

 nervures. The orbicular and vermiform spots are of the same color. The antennae 

 are pectinate in the males, and simple in the female; while the hind-wings are dull- 

 white, with darker margin. The larva is brown, streaked and spotted with black 

 and rosy brown, with a pale stripe along the sides, and four others, more inter- 

 rupted, along the back. It feeds on the various kinds of grasses in April and May, 

 while the perfect insect appears on the wing in the early part of September. Fig- 

 ures of this European species are given below. The next form for notice is the so- 

 called antler moth (Charceas graminis), which is probably one of the most destructive 



I. THE FEATHERED GOTHIC, WITH LARVA; 2. ANGLE SHADES; 3. THE ANTLER MOTH. 



species in Britain, when, under the influence of a favorable season, the larvae appear 

 in very great numbers. The larvae feed upon the roots of grasses, and it is no un- 

 common thing for whole districts of pasture land to become brown and withered, 

 owing to their attacks. The perfect insect appears on the wing in August and 

 September. A figure of this moth is given above. 



THE LOOPERS Family 



The moths belonging to this group resemble in many respects the butterflies, hav- 

 ing large, ample wings, a small head, and a narrow elongate body. The antennae 

 are not, however, clubbed; those of* many of the males being pectinated. The palpi 

 protrude only slightly, the proboscis is present in different degrees of development, 

 while the head bears no ocelli on the top. When at rest, the majority of these 

 moths carry their delicate wings slightly expanded, or closed over their bodies, like 

 the roof of a house, sloping from the centre on either side. They are semi- 

 nocturnal in their habits, appearing at dusk, and lying concealed during the day in 

 bushes, trees, and herbage, whence they may be easily driven by beating the foliage. 

 The larvae differ very decidedly from those of the other families, several pairs of the 

 prolegs being wanting, so that locomotion is possible only by alternately advancing- 



