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and has seven slanting stripes of blue or lilac on each 

 side. A stout, curved, and pointed protuberance, 

 suggestive of a tail, emerges from the hindmost 

 segment of the grub. Before changing to the 

 chrysalis state it turns to a warm yellow colour. 

 The moth is the largest of the British kinds, and is 

 very handsome. The caterpillar is a night-feeder, and 

 the only remedy suggested is to catch them by hand 

 on light moonlight nights, when they can be easily 

 observed. 



The greatest loss occasioned by insects is effected 

 by the surface caterpillars. Surface caterpillars include 

 many varieties, of which those of the Dart moth, 

 Agrotis segetum, and the Heart and Dart moth, Agrotis 

 exclamationis, are the most common. Miss Ormerod 

 describes the caterpillar of the Dart moth as being 

 hatched from June to autumn. When full-grown 

 they are about an inch or an inch and a half in length, 

 nearly as thick as a goose-quill, and smooth, with a 

 few hairs of a pale, smoky colour, but sometimes 

 pinkish or purplish brown, and with two dark lines 

 along the back, and one along each side. These lines 

 however, are not always distinct. The head is horny, 

 much narrower than the next ring, and is stretched 

 out on a plane with the body ; it is of a pale, dingy 

 brown, with black jaws, ochreous eyes, dotted with 

 black, and a cross-like mark on the face. The first 

 ring brown, divided by three pale lines ; on the other 

 segments are four black dots (placed obliquely, two on 

 each side of the central line), and three black dots at 



