274 INSECTS. 



invisible. Their inconspicuous colouring whitish, yel- 

 lowish, brownish and the longitudinal markings in 

 the wings of some species, greatly increase their power 

 of concealing themselves, although under our very eye. 



The writer has, on a day of swiftly alternating cloud 

 and sunshine, watched a grass field seeming literally 

 alive with these Moths, and with myriads of blue Butter- 

 flies, and in which, a few seconds after the obscuration 

 of the sun, a skilled eye was required to detect the pre- 

 sence of either, although in a hundred places seven or 

 eight of the lately blue now speckled drab Butterflies 

 were resting on one grass-stalk, and the same stalks 

 were thickened with the close-clinging Moths. 



There are many very pretty and delicate species in 

 this group, snoutless, of somewhat Butterfly-like aspect, 

 and reposing with the wings spread. Some of these 

 are beautifully marbled. The " Small Magpie " (PL XL, 

 fig. 1), of which the Larva feeds on nettles, is one of the 

 commonest of these. In others, the wings are trans- 

 lucent, and have the lustre and colouring of mother-of- 

 pearl. The group contains only about one hundred and 

 seventy species. 



In Tortricina, the sixth group, the more characteristic 

 genera are distinguished by the marking and form of the 

 fore-wings. These are broadish, and the front margin 

 bows out from the shoulder (see PL XI., fig. 3, Xantho- 

 setia Zygcena) ; some nearly triangular Moths are, how- 

 ever, found among them, and, as the unicolorous hind- 

 wings indicate, these are concealed in an attitude of 

 repose. The colouring is very sober, and the markings 

 are generally in patches. These insects are mostly of 

 rather small size ; the number of British species amounts 

 to about three hundred. 



