184 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



quisite colouring of the full-fed caterpillar 

 being only acquired by slow degrees. 



They are full-fed in about a month, and 

 then invariably rest with the back much 

 arched, the head almost entirely withdrawn 

 into the second segment, the feet directed 

 forwards, and the claspers tenaciously ad- 

 hering to the slender flower-stalks of the food- 

 plant. The head is narrower than the second 

 segment, highly glabrous, the face flattened, 

 the crown slightly notched : the body is obese, 

 deeply incised at the divisions of the segments ; 

 the thoracic segments, namely, the second, 

 third, and fourth, are dilated at the sides, and 

 the second segment also in front ; the dorsal 

 areas of these three segments unite in forming 

 a shield; the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, 

 ninth, and tenth segments have each a trans- 

 verse dorsal ridge, very prominent and con- 

 spicuous, which terminates on each side in a 

 kind of lobe or festoon, containing the spiracle: 

 the ventral area has also gibbous projections, 

 somewhat corresponding with those on the 

 back, but proportionally less, in order to 

 allow of the arched position in which the 

 caterpillar usually rests ; scattered over the 

 dorsal area are minute warts, few in number 

 and very inconspicuous in appearance ; each 

 of these emits a small bristle. The colour of 

 the head is apple-green, the cheeks being 

 sparingly and inconspicuously sprinkled with 

 black : the body is apple-green ; the crest of 

 each dorsal ridge is of a rich velvety oil-green, 

 thus forming a series of conspicuous trans- 

 verse bands, the interstices being pale apple- 

 green ; the lateral lobes or festoons are in 

 some specimens apple-green, but in others of a 

 most beautiful rose-colour, and this again is 

 bordered below by the most intense velvety 

 black ; this black border descends into the 

 anal, but not into the ventral claspers ; the 

 dorsal area of the tenth and twelfth segments 

 is smoke coloured, fading at the lateral 

 margin into green, and there decorated with 

 blotches of rose-colour ; the spiracles are 

 reddish ; the ventral area, legs, and claspers 

 are delicate apple-green ; the hairs or bristles 

 are black. At the end of August most of 

 these caterpillars spin up amongst the flowers 



of the food-plant ; others descend to the sur- 

 face of the earth, and there change into short, 

 obese, glabrous CHRYSALIDS, having the head 

 rather projecting and rounded, the thorax very 

 conve*c, the wing-cases ample, and the anal 

 segment very slender and horn-like, directed 

 backwards, and bearing at its extremity two 

 stout divaricating bristles. The colour of the 

 head, thorax, and wing-cases is transparent 

 olive-green, of the abdomen testaceous brown. 

 The MOTH appears on the wing in July, 

 and is only known to have occurred in Cam- 

 bridgeshire, more especially near Chatteris. 

 (The scientific name is Cidaria sagittata.) 



355. THE COMMON MARBLED CARPET. 

 The palpi are short, connivent, and form a 

 short beak ; the antennse are nearly simple 

 in both sexes ; the fore wings are ample and 

 somewhat pointed at the tip ; their colour is 

 very varied ; there is a large smoky-brown 

 space at the base, intersected but scarcely 

 interrupted by a sienna-brown bar; the middle 

 area of the wing is whitish-gray, and in- 

 cludes on its whitest part a narrow oblique 

 discoidal spot, and two or more irregular 

 transverse lines, in addition to similar boun- 

 dary lines, the exterior of which is produced 

 in the middle into a triple blunt lobe ; ad- 

 joining this lobed black line is a zigzag white 

 line dilated at the costa ; this is followed by 

 a sienna-brown bar, and this by a broad hind- 

 marginal smoky-brown band, which is inter- 

 sected throughout by a zigzag white line and 

 other markings too numerous and too obscure 

 to describe : the hind wings are pale gray- 

 brown : the head and thorax are very much 

 of the same colour as the base of the fore 

 wings ; the body is of the same colour as 

 the hind wings. 



It seems absolutely necessary in this and 

 some other moths to mention that more than 

 one book species are included under the 

 name : I will call them varieties. 



Obs. Both the English and scientific names 

 of the varieties in this and the following 

 species are taken from Haworth ; the names 

 of the species, which combine and include 

 the varieties, are from Doubleday's List. 



