SWALLOW-TAILED MOTH. 57 



The Moth derives its popular name Df Swallow- 

 tail from the peculiar form of the hind-wings, 

 which are prolonged into points something like 

 those of the swallow-tail butterfly. 



The wings are of a uniform pale primrose 

 yellow. The fore-wings have a dark greenish 

 streak beyond the centre, and ano'Jtier inside it 

 passing on across to the inner angle of the hind- 

 wings. The hind-wings terminate in a tail. The 

 thorax and abdomen are uniform with the wings, 

 the latter slightly marked transversely with dark 

 greenish stripes. (See Plate IV. fig. 5.) 



These colours are very delicate, and the wings 

 are very thin and fragile. The insect is ex- 

 ceedingly common, and may be taken in the 

 dusk of the evening as it flies about, and also 

 captured in the daytime by beating the bushes in 

 which it lies hidden during the hours of day- 

 light. When Bagley Wood near Oxford was in its 

 prime, this Moth was continually flying out of ihe 

 bushes as the entomologist passed among them. 



This Moth is the sole British representative of 

 its family, the Ourapterydae. 



OF the next family, the EnnomidaB, we have 

 more than twenty examples, four of which will 

 be found in this book. 



