INSECT ACTORS 103 



Insects that are protectively coloured are 

 very numerous ; in every country lane, field, 

 woodland, and garden they will be found. 

 Butterflies that, when their wings are closed, 

 look for all the world like withered leaves; 

 moths exactly similar in colour and markings 

 to the bark of the trees on which they rest ; 

 beetles so like the ground, lichen, or moss on 

 which they crawl that it is only when they 

 move that their presence can be detected. 



Most night-flying moths (Noctuce) have pro- 

 tective colouring, so that they may escape 

 observation when resting by day. Although, as 

 the dusk begins to deepen in the pine woods, 

 the beautiful Pine-hawk moth is easily seen, 

 flitting ghost-like on graceful, tapering wings, 

 it takes a keen, practised eye to find it during 

 the noontide hour, when it rests with closely 

 folded wings upon the mottled trunk of a pine 

 tree. 



The pretty little buff and silver Buff-tip moth 

 is another remarkable example. Seen in the 

 collector's cabinet its markings look distinctive 

 enough not to be easily overlooked; but when 

 in its natural environment, resting on the bark 

 of a silver birch, or on a lichen-covered limb of 

 some stately forest oak, it very easily escapes 

 detection; while the Lappet moth (Lasiocampa 

 quercifolia) looks so like a brown leaf that it is 

 easily passed over when it is resting motionless 

 on the branch of a tree. 



The Clifden Nonpareil nearly always settles 

 upon old oak park palings, but it is very difficult 

 indeed to find a specimen ; so wonderfully do 



