256 COMMON BRITISH INSECTS. 



assumes a curious attitude when at rest, the front of 

 the body being bent upwards, so that the caterpillar 

 only holds to its food-plant by its claspers. There 

 are two broods of the Burnished Brass Moth in the 

 year one in the early summer, and the other in the 

 middle of autumn. It feeds on several plants, such 

 as the common white dead-nettle, and even the sting- 

 ing-nettle. 



To the same pretty genus belong several other 

 well-known Moths, such as the SILVER Y (Phisia 

 gamma], so easily recognised by the bright silver 

 mark in the middle of the upper wings, closely resem- 

 bling the English letter Y or the Greek letter gamma 

 (7). Then there is the BEAUTIFUL GOLDEN Y (Phisia 

 pulchrina], the upper wings of which have a Y-h'ke 

 mark of burnished golden scales, and below it a round 

 spot of the same colour. Another of these Moths is 

 the GOLD SPANGLE (Phisia bracted), in which the 

 upper wings have on the disc a moderately large 

 and nearly square spot, which looks as if a patch of 

 gold-leaf had been placed on the wing, and brilliantly 

 burnished. 



IF the reader will refer to the accompanying 

 woodcut, he will see a portrait of the well-known 

 HERALD MOTH (Gonopteryx libatrix), our only British 

 representative of the family Gonopteridae. 



Even were not the colour of this insect so con- 

 spicuous, it could at once be identified by the shape 

 of its upper wings, the hinder margins of which are 

 deeply cut and scalloped, very much like those 

 of the Comma Butterfly. The colour of the upper 



