86 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



elongated mark of the same colour ; the hind 

 wings have two faintly indicated waved lines 

 parallel with the hind margin, and a series of 

 slender dark markings on the margin itself; 

 head, thorax, and body white. 



The female, who has a long ovipositor, 

 well adapted for the purpose, deposits her 

 eggs in May and June, either in the crevices 

 of the bark or the axils of the leaves of the 

 younger shoots both of the blackthorn and 

 the bird-cherry. 



The young CATERPILLARS emerge in about 

 fourteen days, and are at first of a deep yellow 

 colour; they soon change to green, and often- 

 times assume a broad medio-dorsal stripe of 

 pale yellow, which, after the last moult, 

 changes as described below. The caterpillar 

 is full-fed at the end of July, when it rests in 

 a nearly straight position, with the head por- 

 rected on a plane with the body. Head flat, 

 narrower than the second segment, not notched 

 on the crown ; body smooth, velvety, uni- 

 formly cylindrical. Colour of the head pale 

 green, semi-transparent, with a large pear- 

 sha} 'Ct.1 spot on each cheek, the smaller ex- 

 tremity of which approaches the mouth, the 

 larger extremity the crowu ; this spot is 

 orange-red in the centre, ami black on the 

 margin ; dorsal surface of the body grass- 

 green, with a medio-dorsal series of elongate 

 orange spots, which occur at the interstices of 

 the segments, and are continuous only on the 

 third and twelfth segments; these spots are 

 bordered on both sides with rich brown ; the 

 second and thirteenth segments are not thus 

 decorated ; the dorsal surface is also sparingly 

 dotted with glaucous-green, approaching to 

 white; on the sides are a series of spiracle- 

 like black dots, the spiracles themselves being 

 brown, and each surrounded by a glaucous 

 ring ; the ventral surface is pale glaucous ; the 

 legs pale transparent green; the claspers grass- 

 green, with pink extremities; it spins a slight 

 cocoon, and remains in the CHRYSALIS state 

 throughout the winter and until the following 

 May, when the MOTH emerges. It is not un- 

 common in England, and is abundant at Kil- 

 larney, in Ireland. (The scientific name is 

 Corycia turner ata.} 



202. The White-pinion Spotted (Corycia tcminata) 



202. THE WHITE-PINION SPOTTED. The 

 antennse are simple in both sexes ; all the 

 wings are white, the fore wings having two 

 brown and obscurely triangular markings on 

 the costal margin ; the first of these is situated 

 at rather more than a third of the distance 

 between the base and the.tip of the wing, and 

 the second is just half way between the arst 

 and the tip : the head, thorax, and bod/ are 

 white. 



The CATERPILLAR is green or purplish brown : 

 it has a broad purple stripe down the middle 

 of the back, edged with white : the spiraculai 

 line white, the spiracles black. It feeds on 

 wild cherry. 



The MOTH occurs, but not commonly, in 

 May, in the south of England, more rare'y ir 

 the north. Mr. Birch all says it is abuniant 

 in Ireland. (The scientific name is Corycic 

 taminata.) 



203. The Sloe Carpet (Aleucis pictwria] . 



203. THE SLOE CARPET. The antennse <,re 

 simple in both sexes; the fore wings ire 

 smoke-coloured, with two transverse waved 

 darker lines, and a central transversely elon- 

 gated spot of the same colour, exactly mid- 

 way between them ; the hind wings are paler. 

 with a very indistinct waved line across the 

 middle; head, thorax, and body gray. 



Mr. Stain ton has most obligingly handed me 

 the following description of the CATERPILLAR, 

 written by Mr. E. G. Baldwin : " Brownish 

 gray, more or less marbled with whitish, par- 

 ticularly on the eighth and ninth segments ; a 

 faint, blackish, V-like mark on the back of the 

 fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth segments, and 

 a black transverse line on the twelfth segment; 



