GEOMETERS 



171 



two caterpillars which I have described from 

 life, and without reference to previous des- 

 criptions, are extremely similar in all their 

 characters. 



337. The Large Twin-spot Carpet (Coremia. 

 quadrifasciata) . 



337. THE LARGE TWIN-SPOT CARPET. The 

 antennae of the male are pectinated : the fore 

 wings are fawn-coloured, with a broad median 

 band of a very dark and smoky umber-brown, 

 yet including a still darker discoidal spot and 

 waved lines ; this band is concave, and pretty 

 regular on its inner margin, but sinuous and 

 sometimes having a sharp angle on its outer 

 margin, which is edged with a slender white 

 line ; about half way between this and the 

 hind margin is a scalloped white line not so 

 distinct ; and touching the inner margin of 

 this, about its middle, is a double dark spot ; 

 the fawn-coloured or isabelline ground on 

 both sides the median bar has various indis- 

 tinct waved markings : the hind wings are 

 dingy-gray, with several transverse rivulet 

 markings, some of them darker, some lighter 

 than the ground colour: the head, thorax, 

 and body are dingy brownish-gray ; each seg- 

 ment of the body having a darker marginal 

 belt delicately bordered with white. 



" The caterpillar is yellowish-gray, marbled 

 with brown ; the spiracular line blackish, 

 sometimes interrupted (Hubner). On low 

 plants, hawthorn, &c." Staintoris Manual,, 

 vol. ii. p. 106. 



The MOTH appears in June in the southern 

 counties of England. It was formerly so 

 common about Godalming, in Surrey, that it 

 was turned out of the net when taken ; it has 

 since occurred commonly at Haslemere ; it 

 has been taken by the Cambridge collectors, 

 and by Dr. Bree at Stowmarket. (The scien- 

 tific name is Coremia quadrifasciata.) 



338. The Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata). 



338. THE YELLOW SHELL. The antennae 

 are simple in both sexes ; all the wings are 

 yellow ; the fore wings have three slender 

 waved white lines, all of them bordered with a 

 brownish tint ; there is a pale, but not white, 

 zigzag line near the hind margin ; the space 

 between the second and hind white lines is 

 sometimes dark brown ; this is more especially 

 the case near these lines; there are also many 

 slender waved brown lines and an indistinct 

 discoidal spot : the hind wings are yellow, 

 with two waved white lines apparent only 

 near the inner margin, and many darker lines ; 

 the hind margin is irregularly scalloped ; all 

 the lines are transverse, and all the wings 

 have a slender and continuous dark marginal 

 line : the head, thorax, and body are yellow. 



The CATERPILLAR appears to have been 

 seldom observed until M. Guen6e gave us the 

 clew to its discovery : it feeds on different 

 grasses by night, secreting itself during the 

 day on the under side of stones, under clods 

 of earth, or at the roots of the herbage during 

 the month of April ; it rests with the head 

 rather prone and bent under ; the head is 

 pale dull green, the dorsal surface of the body 

 glaucous green, with a darker or olive-green 

 medio-dorsal stripe; this stripe is bordered 

 with greenish- white ; on each side is a slender 

 white stripe, and another of precisely the same 

 colour in the region of the spiracles, which 

 are yellow, and each encircled with a sienna- 

 brown ring ; the ventral area is pale green 

 with a medio-ventral stripe of very pale 

 yellow, and a series of spots which are rose- 



