98 



BKITISH MOTHS. 



slightly bent posture, with the anterior ex- 

 tremity raised, and on being touched or 

 annoyed it suddenly tucks in its head, and 

 the anterior extremity assumes the form of 

 an Ionic volute ; in this posture it remains 

 until the apprehended danger has passed. 

 Head rather narrower than the body, slightly 

 notched on the crown, body of uniform sub- 

 stance throughout, without humps, but 

 having the skin delicately shagreened ; the 

 thirteenth segment has below the anal flap 

 two long, conical, acute points directed 

 backwards. Head and body putty- coloured, 

 with numerous narrow, waved, longitudinal 

 stripes of a darker tint ; of these the more 

 conspicuous are five in number and approx- 

 imate ; the middle one, double during a 

 part of its course, is darker towards the 

 head, where the others are less conspicuous 

 and paler ; the spiracles are dark brown. 

 On or about the 1st of August it changes 

 in a very slight cocoon among the leaves of 

 its food-plant ; the CHETSALIS is rather 

 slender, and much attenuated at the anal 

 extremity ; it is beautifully variegated with 

 two colours, wainscot-brown as the ground 

 colour, and dark umber-brown, approaching 

 to black, for the ornamentation ; this is 

 disposed in oblique stripes on the wing- 

 cases, leg-cases, and antenna-cases ; in rings 

 on the abdominal segments, and in diversi- 

 fied markings on the thorax and body. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in the 

 middle of May and middle of August at 

 Plymouth, on the south coast of England, 

 arid at Powerscourt, in Ireland, but has not 

 been taken in Scotland. (The scientific 

 name is Aspilates citraria.) 



225. The Straw Belle (Aspilates gttvaria). 



225. THE STRAW BELLE. The antennse 

 of the male are strongly pectinated through- 

 out their length ; those of the female are 

 simple ; the fore wings are pale yellow, with 



many brown dots, and an oblique transverse 

 pale brown line between the point of the 

 wing and the middle of the inner margin, 

 but not quite reaching either ; between this 

 line and the costal margin is a spot of the 

 same colour ; the hind wings are paler than 

 the fore wings, and almost without mark- 

 ings ; the shaft of the antennse is pale 

 yellow, the fringe brown, the eyes are black ; 

 the head and thorax are pale yellow, the 

 body nearly white. 



The CATERPILLAR is putty-coloured, with 

 a tendency to a rosy tint in some speci- 

 mens ; it has no well-marked medio-dorsal 

 stripe, but two lateral stripes on each side, 

 both of them reddish brown ; the thirteenth 

 segment has, below the anal flap, two long 

 conical acute points directed backwards ; it 

 feeds on the common yarrow (AcMllea 

 millefolium) throughout June. 



The MOTH appears in August in the 

 southern counties of England and at Powers- 

 court and in the county G-alway in Ireland, 

 but has not been noticed in Scotland. (Tho 

 scientific name is Aspilates gilvaria.) 



226. The Currant Moth (Abraxas grossulariata). 



226. THE CURRANT MOTH. The antennse 

 of the male are very slightly pubescent, those 

 of the female perfectly simple ; the fore 

 wings are white, with a yellow blotch at the 

 base, and a yellow, bent, transverse band 

 beyond the middle. There are numerous 

 black blotches, or markings on several parts 

 of the wing. The situation, size, and num- 

 ber of these markings are so liable to varia- 

 tion, that it is impossible to frame a 

 description that shall serve for every speci- 

 men ; but I will describe their more general 

 character. There are five black blotches 

 on the costal margin, the first of which is 

 enclosed in the yellow blotch at the base of 



