CINNABAR MOTHS 



THE DAY OF THE MOTH 



MOTHS are lovers of warm and obscure night skies, but a 

 small number prefer the full sunshine of day like butterflies. 

 Most of the day-flying species conform to the bright colours 

 and markings of the butterfly tribe; but there is no invariable 

 distinction of this kind, and in this respect, as in others, 

 the boundary between moths and butterflies is ill-defined. 

 Several of the thorn moths, the crimson underwings, and 

 other night-flying species are as brightly coloured as most of 

 the butterflies and day-flying moths ; while the brown and 

 white patterns of the Mi moth and bordered white, which fly 

 by day, seem more in accord with the duskier markings of the 

 majority of night-fliers. Certainly there is no lack of brill- 

 iance about the emperor moths which appear on sunny days 

 in late April or early May in many heather districts, where 

 the males with their rich orange-red markings and handsome 

 eye-spots dash more swiftly than any of our butterflies along 

 the woodland rides and over the shoulders of the moor. In 

 flight as in colour these are very brilliant moths, and they 

 have none of the comparative dullness and torpidity which 

 distinguish many of their tribe. Later come the vermilion 

 and sepia cinnabar moths, which appear on commons and in 

 waste fields where ragwort grows, and in weedy gardens 



