GEOMETERS. 



99 



the wing ; the second and third are oblong 

 blotches ; both the fourth and the fifth 

 commence a transverse band of blotches, 

 which border the yellow band already de- 

 scribed, and on the hind margin itself are 

 seven black spots, which extend into the 

 white fringe, which is thus made alternately 

 black and white ; the hind wings are white, 

 with two transverse bands of black spots, 

 the first near the middle, the second on the 

 hind margin : these are the principal mark- 

 ings, but there are always a few others ; the 

 head is black, the thorax is yellow, with a 

 black spot in the middle, and another 

 smaller one at the base of each wing ; the 

 body is yellow, with a row of black spots 

 down the back, one row down each side, 

 and two rows down the belly. This moth 

 is so subject to vary, that it has been thought 

 best to figure several remarkable varieties, 

 which are in the rich cabinet of Mr. Greg- 

 son, of Liverpool, to whose great kindness 

 I am indebted for the opportunity of 

 enriching the work with these illustrations. 



I have seen the females of this species 

 busily engaged in oviposition, not only in 

 the evening, but even in the middle of a 

 warm summer's day, depositing a single 

 egg on a leaf of gooseberry or black currant, 

 and then flying off to another. I once 

 counted ten females simultaneously occu- 

 pied in this manner along a garden wall 

 less than eighty yards in length. 



Like the EGOS of most diurnal Lepidop- 

 tera they remain but a short time before 

 hatching ; the young CATEEPILLAE feeds for 

 two, three, or four weeks, rarely longer, and 

 then spins together the edges of a goose- 

 berry leaf, having first taken the precaution 

 of making the leaf fast to its twig by 

 numerous silken cables, which prevent the 

 possibility of its falling when dehiscence 



takes place in the autumn ; im the little 

 cradle thus fabricated, the infant caterpillar 

 sleeps as securely and as fearlessly as the 



sailor in his hammock ; snow-storms and 

 wintry winds are matters of indifference to 

 him ; but no sooner have the gooseberry- 

 bushes begun to assume their livery of green 

 in the spring, than instinct informs him 

 that food is prepared to satisfy his appetite ; 

 so he cuts an opening in his pensile cradle, 

 emerges, and begins to eat. The full-fed 

 caterpillar commonly rests in a straight 

 posture, lying parallel with the branch; but 

 when annoyed he elevates his back, and 

 tucks in his head until it is brought into 

 contact with the abdominal claspers ; if the 

 annoyance be continued, he drops from his 

 food, hanging by a thread, rarely falling to 

 the ground ; but when this is the case, he 

 is bent double, and remains a long time in 

 that posture. Head rather small, prone, 

 partially retractile into the second segment, 

 scarcely notched on the crown ; body of 

 uniform thickness, without excrescences. 

 Head emitting n few strong black hairs, 

 intensely black, with the exception of the 

 clypeus and base of the antennal papillae, 

 which are white ; body cream-coloured, with 

 a reddish-orange lateral stripe below the 

 spiracles ; this is conspicuous on the fifth, 



sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth segments, 

 but less so at each extremity ; the whole of 

 the second segment, and the ventral surface 



