238 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



the fifth segment ; there is a short oblique 

 dark stripe on each side of each segment, 

 but this is by no means conspicuous or dis- 

 tinct ; the spiracles are black ; the ventral 

 is paler than the dorsal area, indeed, 

 inclined to gray ; the legs are reddish- 

 brown ; the claspers are paler, correspond- 

 ing to the ventral area ; I have frequently 

 found this caterpillar feeding on the com- 

 mon bramble (Rubus fruticosus), and I 

 know of no other food-plant ; when full-fed 

 it spins a few leaves together, and in the 

 retreat thus made it turns to a cylindrical 

 CHRYSALIS with a conical body, which ter- 

 minates in a slender horn-like point directed 

 backwards. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July, 

 and is common in most of the English 

 counties ; Mr. Birchall says it is very 

 common in Ireland, and gives Kil- 

 larney, Wicklow, Galway, and Howth as 

 habitats. (The scientific name is Gonophora 

 derasa.) 



Obs. Ochsenheimer has united the Buff- 

 arches with the Peach-blossom, under the 

 genus Thyatira ; they are very different in 

 appearance, and I quite incline to Mr. 

 Bruand's view of keeping them distinct. 



413. The Peach-blossom (Thyatira batis). 



413. THE PEACH-BLOSSOM. The antennae 

 are very slightly pubescent in the male, 

 quite simple in the female ; the fore wings 

 are blunt at the tip ; their colour is olive- 

 brown, with one small and four large 

 roundish spots on each, and also one addi- 

 tional large spot common to both wings 

 near the middle of the inner margin ; the 

 largest of these spots is amorphous, and is 

 seated at the base of the wing ; two others 

 closely approximate are at the extremity of 

 the costal margin; a fourth occupies the 



anal angle ; and close to this on the hind 

 margin is the smaller spot already men- 

 tioned; the disk of all these remarkable 

 and very ornamental spots is rosy or rosy- 

 brown, but their circumscription is white ; 

 they have much the appearance of the fallen 

 petals of some flower, whence the name of 

 " Peach-blossom : " the hind wings are 

 dingy-brown, with a paler and indistinct 

 transverse median band : the head is pale 

 brown ; the thorax pale brown with trans- 

 verse bars of rosy-brown, faint and delicate ; 

 the body is pale brown, the second, third, 

 and fourth segments having a small dorsal 

 crest. 



The CATERPILLAR rests with the anal 

 claspers raised from its food-plant, and 

 apparently not used for prehension; the 

 legs likewise are seldom attached. The 

 head is about equal in width to the second 

 segment : the face is prone, and the cro'wn 

 slightly produced and indistinctly notched ; 

 the body is rather velvety, the dorsal area 

 irregularly humped ; the principal hump is 

 on the third segment ; it is bifid, pro- 

 jected forwards, generally extending over 

 the second segment, and sometimes over 

 the head ; the fourth and fifth segments are 

 nearly simple, but those which follow from 

 the sixth to the tenth, both inclusive, have 

 each a medio-dorsal crest or hump ; the 

 twelfth segment is dorsally pointed: the 

 colour of the head is reddish-brown; the 

 dorsal area of the body is reddish-brown, 

 marbled with reddish-gray; it feeds on 

 the common bramble (Rubus fruticosus), 

 and in September, or sometimes as early 

 as the end of August, spins a very slight 

 and loose cocoon among the leaves, and 

 wnen in confinement among the moss or 

 rubbish on the floor of the breeding- 

 cage, and therein changes to a blackish 

 CHRYSALIS, which has a stout thorax but 

 rather small conical body and a sharp anal 

 point. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June 

 and July of the following year, and is far 



from uncommon in most of our English 



o 



counties, and Mr. Birchall says it is very 

 common in Ireland. (The scientific name 

 is Thyatira batis.) 



