GEOMETERS. 



167 



bent position ; the head is semi-porrect, 

 scarcely so broad as the body; the body is 

 cylindrical, but slightly narrowed anteriorly; 

 the skin appears tight, and has but little 

 appearance of wrinkles or skinfolds. The 

 colour of the head is light red, tinged with 

 green in the middle of the face ; the body 

 is delicately green, with red blotches as de- 

 scribed below; the first originates immediately 

 behind the head, and is there of the same 

 breadth as the head, but it narrows to a point 

 on the back of the fifth segment; others 

 three, four, or even five in number form a 

 longitudinal medio-dorsal series, and others 

 sometimes appear placed transversely on the 

 tenth and thirteenth segments ; the legs are 

 pinky-red ; the claspers green, with a red 

 blotch on the outer side; it descends the rose- 

 bush, and changes to a CHRYSALIS in the earth. 

 The MOTH appears in April in most of our 

 English counties, and occurs also in Scotland, 

 and in the county Wicklow in Ireland. (The 

 scientific name is Anticlea derivata.) 



332 The Barberry Carpet (Anticlea lerlerata). 



332. THE BARBERRY CARPET. The fore 

 wings are gray, with very numerous markings 

 of umber-brown of different shades ; near the 

 base is a short bar, both margins of which are 

 darker than the median area ; this bar is 

 followed by a gray space, which includes two 

 elbowed darker lines ; then follows a dark 

 umber-brown bar, and then a gray band scal- 

 loped at the sides and interrupted at the costal 

 extremity, and in the middle ; the middle of 

 this band is the centre of the wing ; a short 

 distance beyond this band is a sharply-angled 

 zigzag black line; there is a broad pale band 

 on the hind margin, except at its costal extre- 

 mity, where an oblique division of colours 

 takes place at the very tip of the wing, the 

 costal area of the tip being dark, the hind- 

 margiiial area pale gray; the hind wings are 



pale gray -brown, with several darker but pale 

 zigzag lines parallel with the hind margin : 

 the head, thorax, and body have the same 

 shades of colour disposed transversely. 



The CATERPILLAR is extremely sluggish, and 

 disinclined to move; when compelled to do so, 

 it generally drops from its food-plant sus- 

 pended by a thread ; it rests with its claspers 

 firmly attached, but most commonly has the 

 legs free, the body being bent double, and the 

 legs being brought almost or quite into con- 

 tact with the ventral claspers ; sometimes 

 both the anterior and posterior segments are 

 straight, the intervening segments consti- 

 tuting a loop ; the head is partially concealed 

 by the anterior margin of the second segment, 

 it is rounded on the crown, is of somewhat 

 less diameter than the body, and is slightly 

 hairy; the body is obese, short, and rugose, 

 the rugosity occasioned by each segment 

 having an elevated transverse skinfold on 

 which are situated several warts, each wart 

 emitting a slender bristle. The colour is va- 

 rious ; the prevailing varieties are : first a 

 pale raw-sienna brown, with three dorsal 

 stripes of a somewhat darker colour, all of 

 them indistinct, and the median one very 

 slender : secondly a brighter or burnt-sienna 

 brown, with two broad, dorsal, longitudinal 

 umber-brown stripes, and the faintest possible 

 indication of a slender median stripe : thirdly 

 a gray or putty-coloured ground colour, 

 thickly sprinkled with black, and having on 

 each side of each segment an indication of 

 a large crescentic white mark ; in the last 

 variety the base of the legs is black, and in 

 all the varieties the head is beautifully tesse- 

 lated, the tesselations in the brown specimens 

 being a darker shade of the same colour, those 

 in the gray specimens being pure black. It 

 feeds on the common barberry (Berberis vul- 

 yaris), appearing in May. The larvae of the 

 second brood are those from which I have 

 taken my description ; they were full-fed at 

 the end of September. 



The MOTH is double-brooded, appearing in 

 May, and again in August; it has been taken 

 in Essex, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire, but 

 not in the north of England, in Scotland, or 



