70 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



body are the s-ame colour as the wings. It is 

 remarkable, that when this moth comes out 

 of the chrysalis in wet weather, every part 

 of it is suffused with a red tinge. 



The CATERPILLAR is green very much the 

 same colour as the moth. Its head is notched 

 on the crown. It feeds on the commou 

 broom. The caterpillar is found in J me, 

 and the moth in July. 



The EGG is laid on dyer's green-weed 

 (Genista anglica) and common broom (Spar- 

 tium Scoparium), generally between the 20th 

 and 30th of July ; and the young caterpillai s 

 usually emerge in fifteen days : they feed but 

 sparingly, and are very small when winter 

 sets in. My specimens were full-fed on the 

 14ih of June. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July, 

 and is common in most of our English 

 counties ; it has also been taken in Scot- 

 land, and Mr. Birchall says it is common 

 and generally distributed in Ireland. The 

 scientific name is Pseudoterpna cytisaria.) 



152. The Large Emerald (Geometra papilionaria) . 



152. THE LARGE EMERALD. The antennae 

 are ciliated in the male, simple in the female : 

 the wings are uniformly green : the fore 

 wings have three transverse, waved, white 

 lines, not very distinct : the one nearest the 

 base much shorter than the others : these 

 lines are very distant at the costal margin, 

 and much nearer at the inner margin : inter- 

 mediate between the first and second is a 

 crescent shaped, dark green mark ; the third 

 or outer line is broken up into crescentic 

 spots : the hind wings have a beautifully scal- 

 loped white line passing transversely across 

 the middle, and dividing the wing exactly in 

 half. lu the centre of the space enclosed hv 



this scalloped line is a crescent-shaped darker 

 mark; and exactly intermediate, between the 

 scalloped line and the hind margin, is a 

 transverse row of white dots : the antennae 

 and fore legs are whitish : the head and 

 thorax green ; the body nearly white. 



The EGGS are laid in the autumn, on birch 

 (Betula alba) ; the young CATERPILLAR 

 emerges in two or three weeks, according to 

 the temperature, and feeds for a short time 

 only, hyberuating when very small : in early 

 spring it again begins to feed, and is full-fed 

 towards the end of May. In June it spins 

 together some of the leaves of its food- plant, 

 forming a thin whitish cocoon, in which it 

 changes to a green CHRYSALIS, having brown- 

 ish wing-cases, and a reddish blotch on the 

 back of the same segments, which have the 

 red-brown stripe in the larva. 



Tue MOTH appears on the wing about mid- 

 summer : it is tolerably common in most of 

 our English counties, and has been taken in 

 Scotland. Mr. Birchall says that in Ireland 

 it is common at Killarney and in the county 

 Wicklow. (The scientific name is Geometra 

 papilionaria.} 



153. The Essex Emerald (Geometra smaragdaria). 



153. THE ESSEX EMERALD. All the wings 

 green : the fore wings with two transparent, 

 waved, whitish lines, and a distinct white 

 spot between them : the costal margin of the 

 fore wings is tinged with yellow. 



My late friend, Thomas Ingall, found the 

 CATERPILLAR of this species on the Essex, 

 coast, but unfortunately did not know what 

 a prize he had obtained until the moth 

 emerged ; it was of a. dull olive-green, with 

 humps on the sixth and tenth segments. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in May, and 

 has only been taken on the c^ast of E-sex. 

 (The scientific i iaiue is Geometra smaragdaria.} 



