96 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



margin, of a vinous rose-colour ; the first of 



The Purple-barred Yellow, female and male. 



these bands is slightly bent, the second is 

 oblique, but not bent : the hind wings are of 

 a deep dingy fulvous colour, with rose-coloured 

 fringe, and having the white of the base and 

 the inner margin suffused with darker olive. 



The back of the CATERPILLAR is either dull 

 green or of the same vinous rose-colour as the 

 perfect insect, with a darker medio-dorsal 

 stripe : the belly is brighter green, the two 

 colours being very distinctly separated : the 

 head, feet, and claspers are of the same colour 

 as the body. It feeds on the various species 

 of polygonum and dock. I know of no moth 

 more variable than this ; it seems a perfect 

 Proteus, capable of assuming any size or 

 colour : it is very common on dry hills on the 

 continent of Europe, and occurs also in Scot- 

 land and the north of England, flying by day, 

 but has not been taken in any abundance in 

 either locality, and has not been found in Ire- 

 land. (The scientific name is Lythria pur- 

 pur aria.} 



222. The Vestal (Sterrha sacraria). 



222. THE YESTAL. The antennae of the 

 male ai'e slightly pectinated for above three- 

 quarters of their length, then simple to the 

 extremity ; those of the female are simple 

 throughout ; the fore wings are pointed, and 

 of a delicate canary-yellow with the costal 

 margin at the base pink, and a very beautiful 

 and very distinct oblique pink stripe, begin- 

 ning at the point of the wing and ending at 

 the middle of the inner margin, before reaching 

 which it almost disappears. 



The CATERPILLAR has been described by two 

 excellent observers : first by M. Milliere, in 



France ; and secondly by Mr. Hellins, in 

 England. 



The EGGS are laid in August, on several 

 kinds of dock and camomile, on the leaves 

 of which the caterpillar feeds in a state of 

 nature, but in confinement it has been success- 

 fully fed upon the common knot-grass. The 

 egg is very long, oval, and ornamented with 

 rows of hexagonal network ; its colour at first 

 is pale greenish-yellow, changing in a day or 

 two to bright coral-red, and again, a few hours 

 before the emergence of the caterpillar, to a 

 smoky-gray. When full grown, the cater- 

 pillar is about an inch in length, slender, 

 cylindrical, and tapering gradually towards 

 the head, which is rather flat and wide ; it 

 rests with the back slightly raised, but if 

 annoyed it curls up the anterior part of the 

 body. The ground colour is green or blue- 

 green, the posterior segments yellowish-green, 

 the belly whitish-green, the head brownish- 

 red with a pale stripe on each lobe, bordered 

 above with brighter red, and below with 

 darker brown; the body has a slender, pale, 

 medio-dorsal stripe, bordered throughout more 

 or less distinctly with bright rust or deep red 

 colom % , which at the incisions of all the seg- 

 ments after the fifth, expands into the form of 

 a letter Y, the apex pointing towards the head 

 of the caterpillar ; each of these marks 

 encloses a three-cornered yellowish-white spot ; 

 the anal flap and ventral claspers are tinged 

 with purplish-pink; the regions of the spiracles 

 is yellowish-green, which becomes a stripe o 

 the second, third, fourth, eleventh, twelfth, 

 and thirteenth segments, and runs into the 

 anal claspers. The CHRYSALIS is long and 

 slender, the head-case projecting and narrower 

 than the body; the wing-cases are widely 

 separated and reach to the middle of the 

 chrysalis ; the antennae-cases extend between 

 the wing-cases ; colour pale yellowish-olive ; 

 head and wing-cases pale olive-green, finely 

 outlined with black. The chrysalis is en- 

 closed in a fine open network cocoon of 

 yellow silk, fastened between the stems of 

 the food plant. 



The MOTHS fly by day, and appear on the 

 wing in July, August, and October j those ot 



