432 



of Natural 



pale buff-coloured ground : the antennae are 

 widely pectinated with a quadruple series of 

 fibres, which have a very elegant appearance. 

 This species, or at least a closely allied one, 

 is found both in the East and West Indies. 



The BYE-GRASS MOTH. (Penthopfiora 

 morio.t This Moth is of a middling size ; the 

 male, with extended wings, is nearly an inch 

 broad, and black. The antennae are strongly 

 pectinated in two rows : and the head, back, 

 and abdomen are black, the latter with yel- 

 low notches posteriorly. The wings are very 

 thin, membranous, transparent, and black, 

 with fringes of the same colour, or sometimes 

 brownish. The female is distinguished by 

 a proportionally thick, long abdomen, which 

 is whitish gray, and woolly at its exterior ; 



Hair. Atter pairing, the female lays ner 

 eggs at the end of May and beginning of 

 June, round the stems of the grass, arid covers 



and by small, slender, brownish 

 which are not adapted for flying, xne ca- 

 terpillar is found in April and May, living 

 on rye-grass (Lolium perenne), and many 

 other plants in meadows : its ground colour 

 is velvety black, yellow at the incisions and 

 sides, with a black head and small reddish 

 yellow warts, having ash-gray hairs on them. 

 The cocoon consists of only a few threads ; 

 the pupa is yellow, streaked with black 

 lengthways, blackish brown on the wing- 

 covers, and beset with whitish gray tufts of 

 hair. After pairing, the female lays her 



ay am 



ftheg 



them with the down from her abdomen, to 

 secure them from the weather. Two gene- 

 rations appear in long, warm summers ; but 

 in general the caterpillar passes the winter 

 at the roots of the grass. The destruction 

 of this caterpillar when in great abundance 

 is very difficult, as it prefers living in long 

 grass in the day time, or in the ground. 

 Breaking up the meadows in autumn ap- 

 pears to be the best method of destroying 

 the pupae concealed there j they will thus be 

 exposed to the enemies appointed by Nature 

 herself, such as Ichneutnonldce, &c. 



The BROWN TAIL MOTH (Pot-thesia au- 

 riflua) is remarkable for the ravages which 

 its caterpillar commits by destroying the 

 foliage of trees and hedges. The Moth is of 

 a fine satiny white, except the hinder part of 

 the body, which is of a deep brown. The 

 caterpillar is brown and hairy, having a row 

 of white spots along each side, and two red 

 spots on the lower part of the back. It is of 

 a gregarious nature, vast numbers residing 

 under one common web : thev are hatched 

 early in autumn, and immediately form for 

 themselves a small web, and begin feeding 

 on the foliage of the tree or shrub on which 

 they were placed : they marshal themselves 

 with great regularity for this purpose in rows, 

 and at first devour only the upper pellicle 

 and the green parenchyma of the leaves, and 

 in the evening retire to their web. In about 

 three weeks they cast their skin, and proceed 

 to feed as before, enlarging their web from 

 time to time, and forming it on all sides as 

 strong and secure as possible. Here they 

 remain during the whole winter in a state 

 of torpidity, till, being enlivened by the 

 warmth of the returning spring, they issue 

 from their covering with increased strength, 



and devour the whole substance of the leaves. 

 When full grown, which is usually about the 

 beginning of June, each spins itself a sepa- 

 rate web, in which it changes to a dark 

 brown chrysalis, out of which in about a 

 month the Moth issues. The ravages of these 

 caterpillars have in some years been so great 

 as to cause the most serious apprehensions. 

 In 1782, so numerous were they in many 

 parts of England, and particularly in the 

 neighbourhood of London, that subscriptions 

 were opened and poor people employed to 

 cut off and collect the webs at one shilling 

 per bushel ; they were then burned, under 

 the inspection of the parochial officers : and 

 it is asserted, that in one day, in the parish 

 of Clapham alone, eighty bushels were thus 

 collected and destroyed. 



The larvae of Psyche and other allied 

 genera of Moths inhabit a case constructed 

 by themselves. In some species found in 

 New Holland and South Africa, these cases 

 are often beautifully ornamented with 

 straws, spines, or little bits of wood. It is 

 an example of this kind that Capt. Sir James 

 Alexander describes, in his 'Excursions in 

 Western Africa,' under the name of the 

 Lictor. " That strange insect, the Lictor, or 

 bundle of sticks, occurs here (Kaffir-land), 

 and, with its caterpillar-like tunic, on which 

 are stuck the ends of little sticks, all raking 

 aft like the quills of a porcupine, it may be 

 seen walking along by projecting its head 

 and six legs from its case. In some of these 

 insects the sticks are irregular, the longest 

 being near the tail. In others again there 

 are three sets of regular fasces connected by 

 a ' diarthrodial articulation ;' which makes 

 the ingenuity of this insect the more remark- 

 able. All the fasces are about the same 

 length ; but the set about the head are thick ; 

 the middle are less so ; and the tail fasces 

 taper nearly to a point. This variety is 

 found suspended to dried rhenaster bushes. 

 A third species, more delicate than the other 

 two, feeds on yellow everlasting flowers ; 

 and has one set of regular fasces about its 

 body." 



Of the family NociuiDvE, we may specify 

 the CABBAGE MOTH. (Mamestria bras- 

 sicce.) This Moth is about an inch and a 

 half broad, when the wings are extended ; 

 its head, collar, and back, are blackish-gray, 

 intermixed with whitish and yellowish hairs. 

 The back has a thick double crest ; the ab- 

 domen is dark ash gray, the upper half beset 

 in the middle with black tofts. The upper 

 wings are gray, with a mixture of yellow and 

 white. The anterior border is very light to 

 beyond the middle, with dark spots ; on the 

 watered band are two or three yellowish 

 spots : the cross lines are distinct, the first is 

 rather broad, and the next double the width, 

 with a dark edge ; the usual middle spots sur- 

 rounded with white, the kidney-shaped one 

 in the middle, with a whitish-gray lunule, 

 surrounded with a blackish colour ; the usual 

 conical spot is dark, and surrounded with 

 brown. The watered band is extremely light, 

 and terminates at the white notched line, 

 marked with a W. At the first end of the 

 above line is a softened-off rusty spot. Near 



