CUSPIDATES. 



22* 



pair of ventral and the anal claspers. These 

 caterpillars having arrived at their full-fed 

 condition, descend the trunks or stems of 

 the trees on which they ha^e fed, and crawl 

 about the surface of the ground with great 

 activity, often crossing dusty roads and 

 leaving long circuitous tracks in the dust ; 

 sometimes marching over flagged pathways, 

 and being consequently trodden under foot 

 of man, by which casualty hundreds come 

 to an untimely end ; those which escape 

 nestle at the roots of herbage or under 

 fallen leaves, and change to CHRYSALIDS 

 on the surface of the earth, without any 

 web, cocoon, or protection of any kind, and 

 with so little attempt at concealment, that 

 they are frequently seen by the passing 

 entomologist, and are sometimes in such 

 abundance that boys collect them to sell to 

 dealers in entomological specimens at a 

 penny or twopence a dozen : they also con- 

 stitute a favourite food of poultry, and are 

 sought for with great eagerness ; Dame 

 Partlet may often be seen scratching for 

 them in my own neighbourhood under the 

 lindens. The chrysalis is regularly punc- 

 tuate, but slightly shining: its colour is 

 very dark brown ; a deep dorsal notch 

 divides the twelfth and thirteenth segments ; 

 the latter terminates in two very singular 

 processes, each of which is furcate, the 

 prongs divaricating and acutely pointed. 



The MOTH appears in June, and is abun- 

 dant in many parts of England and Ireland. 

 (The scientific name is Pygcera bucephala.) 



393. The Chocolate-tip (Clostera curtula'). 



393. THE CHOCOLATE-TIP. The antennae 

 are moderately pectinated in the male, very 

 slightly so in the female : the fore wings 

 have the costal margin straight, the tip 

 obtuse ; their colour is brownish-gray with 



a tinge of pink, except at the tip, which is 

 occupied by a very large, bright, chestnut- 

 coloured blotch ; each wing is traversed by 

 five transverse bars, the first, second, and 

 fourth of which, counting from the base, 

 are very distinct, and almost direct ; they 

 are white or ochreous-white, with darker 

 borders, the third is less distinct and less 

 complete ; it is imperfect at both extrem- 

 ities, at its lower extremity not quite 

 reaching the inner margin, and at its upper 

 extremity bending towards and uniting with 

 the fourth, before it reaches the costal 

 margin; the fifth is little more than a 

 transverse series of irregular dots : it inter- 

 sects the apical blotch, cutting it into two 

 almost equal but irregular sections : the 

 hind wings are gray-brown ; the head is 

 gray -brown ; the thorax is gray-brown ; 

 with a cordate median umber-brown blotch, 

 the smaller end being directed backwards, 

 prolonged and pointed ; the body is gray- 

 brown, the extremity umber-brown and 

 spreading. 



The EGGS of the first brood are usually 

 laid during the month of April, on the 

 common aspen (Populus tremula), and other 

 species of poplar. When hatched, the 

 young CATERPILLARS associate in companies, 

 spin together the leaves of the food-plant 

 without altering their perfectly flat position, 

 and reside entirely in the domicile thus 

 formed, eating only the upper cuticle and 

 parenchyma of the lower of the two leaves 

 of which their dwelling is composed, and 

 leaving the ribs as it were skeletonized, yet 

 connected together by the lower cuticle. 

 When the leaves forming this dwelling are 

 separated, each caterpillar leaves its domi- 

 cile at night to feed, and returns to it before 

 morning. The head is rather wider than 

 the body, which is somewhat depressed in 

 form, but of nearly uniform substance 

 throughout ; there is a dorsal hump on the 

 fifth and another on the twelfth segment ; 

 each segment, except the second, which 

 has but a single wart on each side, has also 

 a transverse series of six warts of nearly 

 uniform size, besides a minute wart just 

 behind the spiracle on the fifth, sixth, 

 seventh, eighth, and twelfth segments ; on 

 the ninth, tenth, and eleventh segments 



