246 



BEITISH MOTHS. 



the cocoons they had previously constructed 

 as habitations during their caterpillar state ; 

 they usually remain in the chrysalis state 

 throughout June and July. On account of 

 its peculiar economy, this species is rather 

 difficult to manage in confinement ; the 

 caterpillars from which my description is 

 made, proved exceedingly restless in con- 

 finement, and pertinaciously refused to 

 build or to feed on the diversified banquet 

 of lichens which I provided for their well- 

 being. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July 

 and August, and is abundant, but local, in 

 our southern counties, occurring in plenty 

 on walls at Exeter, Plymouth, Brighton, &c., 

 and formerly on the canal bridge in the Old 

 Kent Eoad, where I have not seen it for 

 twenty-five years ; 1 know of no other 

 locality in the London district : it comes 

 freely to sugar. (The scientific name is 

 Bryophila glandifera.) 



422. The Marbled Beauty (Bryophila Perla). 



422. THE MARBLED BEAUTY. The an- 

 tennae are slender, simple, and similar in 

 both sexes ; the fore wings are very nearly 

 straight on the costa; the tip is blunt; 

 their colour is pale gray, almost white, and 

 varied with darker markings of a smoky- 

 gray, but these as well as the general sur- 

 face of the wing are often suffused with a 

 greenish and sometimes with an ochreous 

 tinge ; there is always a dark blotch at the 

 base of the wing, and this is followed by a 

 white bar, which extends from the costal to 

 the inner margin ; the discoidal spots are 

 very large, vague, and almost united with 

 each other, and also with the inner margin 

 by a smoky cloud ; the costal margin and 

 fringe are spotted with blackish-gray, and 

 there are several transverse lines of the 

 same colour. The hind wings are pale, but 

 smoky towards the margin ; the head and 

 thorax are white, the body smoky-gray. 



The EOHJS, which are white, are laid in 

 August and September on those fat lichens 

 which are so commonly found growing on 

 brick walls : in the " neighbourhood of 

 London are many such localities, and in 

 one in my own immediate neighbourhood 

 there is a brick wall which these little moths 

 have colonized, and which I have been in 

 the habit of visiting for the last twenty 

 years. 



The young CATERPILLARS, which are at 

 first very dark coloured, and very hairy, 

 emerge from the egg-shell in about a fort- 

 night indeed, the time varies from ten to 

 twenty days ; at the approach of winter 

 they are still very small, and, spinning 

 little silken cocoons in the crevices of the 

 bricks or mortar, remain entirely concealed 

 during the winter ; in the spring they begin 

 to feed again, eating nothing but the flat 

 lichens on which the eggs are laid, and 

 these only when saturated with moisture ; 

 the colony I have more particularly ob- 

 served is on a wall facing the south, and 

 exposed to the mid-day sun, but the cater- 

 pillars always retire from the sunshine, 

 concealing themselves in little silken domi- 

 ciles ; they feed morning and evening, when 

 the atmosphere is laden with moisture ; 

 and in wet weather in the day also ; the 

 lichens absorb water, whether from dew or 

 rain, and it is only in this moistened state 

 that they are relished by these little cater- 

 pillars, which then feed greedily, and are 

 rarely found at rest except in their cocoons. 

 When full-fed, the head is rather small, 

 and is retractile within the second segment ; 

 it is shining, slightly hairy, and of a bluish- 

 black colour on the crown and sides, but 

 the face is spotted with black ; the body is 

 stout, and of uniform thickness throughout, 

 with the back slightly depressed, and the 

 belly flattened ; each segment has twelve 

 small warts, and each wart emits a bristle ; 

 the dorsal area is almost entirely occupied 

 by a broad slate-coloured stripe, which is 

 bounded on each side by a series of orange 

 markings, narrow, linear, or somewhat 

 crescentic ; between this series of markings 

 and the legs is a slender white line on the 

 anterior segments, and attached to each of 

 the markings is a small white spot j the 



