i80 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



placed transversely on the thorax, and two on 

 each segment of the body. The under side is 

 remarkable for the presence of a very con- 

 spicuous discoidal spot on each wing, these 

 spots not being traced without difficulty on 

 the upper side. 



Mr. Beauchamp has favoured me with the 

 following life-history of this species : " I 

 took a female in 1861. She laid me some 

 small oval whitish EGGS on the under side of a 

 sallow-leaf, generally in the hollow by the 

 side of the mid-rib or some other rib, often 

 two or more on a leaf, but never adjoining 

 each other. I transferred them to a young 

 tree growing in a pot. As soon as hatched, 

 the CATERPILLARS spun a web resembling that 

 of the Yponomeutidce, and sometimes, like 

 them, several together. When a little older, 

 they bent and fastened leaves together, and 

 ate through the walls of their dwelling until 

 they left only a skeleton, when they went on 

 to another place, to behave in a similar man- 

 ner. They were very sluggish, not taking 

 the trouble to push their tails outside, so that 

 when they had eaten the walls of theu "'eiit, 

 the lower part formed a bag full oi tneir 

 excrement. They usually lay curled up in 

 their tent, and all mine continued to dwell 

 under cover until they went down. I think 

 I never saw them outside, except when they 

 were removing, and once when they had eaten 

 their plant down to the stump ; then they 

 crawled about uneasily until fresh food was 

 introduced. When full-grown they were 

 scarcely an inch long, and reminded me some- 

 what of the caterpillars of Eupitheciavenosata 

 in their general appearance. I proceed to give 

 a description of them. Shortand stumpy, with 

 a few very short hairs ; head small, shining 

 brown, the two upper lobes round and >n 

 epicuous ; dorsal line brown, borders, on the 

 tipper side by a slender broken whitish iine 

 (perhaps this is the true sub-dorsa ) ; spiracu- 

 lar line broad, dirty white, puckered ; the 

 ground colour above the spiracular line varies 

 from pale flesh-colour to dark brown ; the 

 belly from pale gray to dark gray; in the 

 dark specimens the dorsal line is scarcely per- 

 ceptible, but the sub-donsal (?) is perceptibly 



darker. On the upper side of each of the anal 

 claspers there is a large blackish spot, in 

 addition to which, light specimens have a 

 blackish spot on the centre-piece of the anal 

 segment. The chrysalis is in a rather slight 

 earthy cocoon. I kept mine in a fireless 

 attic." 



Mr. Beauchamp's MOTHS began to emerge 

 early in May, and the last made its appear- 

 ance about the end of that month : he took 

 great pains to continue the breed, but in- 

 effectually, although he sacrificed a dozen 

 specimens for that purpose, keeping them till 

 they died, in a large leno bag over a growing 

 tree, and feeding them with syrup ; some 

 of them lived more than a fortnight, but 

 only a score of eggs were laid, and all of 

 them proved infertile. 



The MOTHS usually appear on the wing in 

 June, notwithstanding Mr. Beauchamp's 

 brood appeared early in May. They have 

 been taken in many parts of England, par- 

 ticularly in the southern counties, but I 

 do not know of the species having occurred 

 IP Scotland; but Mr. Birchall has taken it 

 at Powerscourt, in Ireland. (The scientific 

 name is Eucosmia undulata.) 



350. The Ked-green Carpet (Cidaria ptittacata). 



350. THE RED-GREEN OARPET. The an- 

 tennae are slightly pubescent in the male, just 

 sufficiently so to make them appear more 

 robust than those of the female ; the fore wings 

 are rather narrow, and the tip rather pointed ; 

 the colour of the fore wings is a rich greenish 

 gray, with two paler transverse bars ; the 

 first of these is situated before the middle of 

 the wing ; it commences on the costal margin, 

 and is contracted before the middle ; it then 

 expands, then again contracts below the 

 middle, and lastly, expands to its greatest 

 width on the inner margin ; the second bar W 



