222 



BEITISH MOTHS. 



there are two warts below the spiracle in- 

 stead of one ; all the warts emit silky hairs : 

 at this period the head is black, the body 

 opaque black, with a broad pale yellow 

 median stripe, which is composed of four 

 narrow approximate stripes, and is inter- 

 rupted on the fifth and twelfth segments by 

 the dorsal humps, which are black ; all the 

 warts are pale yellow : the belly, anal flap, 

 and anal claspers are smoke-coloured, with 

 a tinge of pink ; the legs black ; the ventral 

 claspers smoke-coloured. After the last 

 ecdysis, which takes place in May, the cater- 

 pillar leaves its domicile, rarely returning 

 to it, and its appearance is greatly altered ; 

 the black dorsal humps remain, the warts 

 and hairs remain ; the warts are orange- 

 red, the hairs nearly white ; the whole body 

 with these exceptions is reddish- gray, 

 spotted with black ; the body having greatly 

 increased in size is now wider than the 

 head, which is black only on the sides, 

 having a red stripe down the face, a black 

 clypeus and a white labrum : it still spins 

 together the leaves of its food-plant, the 

 lower usually remaining flat, while the 

 upper is raised into a manifest convexity ; 

 in this retreat it changes to a CHRYSALIS of 

 a dark-brown colour, and rounded at the 

 anal extremity. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in April 

 and July, the chrysalis producing the April 

 brood remains in that state throughout the 

 winter. It occurs in the caterpillar state 

 in our northern, midland, and southern 

 counties, and also near Clonmel, in Ireland. 

 (The scientific name is Clostera curtula.) 



394. The Scarce Chocolate-tip (Clostera anachoreta). 



394. THE SCARCE CHOCOLATE-TIP. The 

 antennae are moderately pectinated in the 

 male, very slightly in the female ; the fore 

 wings have the costal margin straight, and 



the tip obtuse ; their colour is brownish- 

 gray, with a tinge of pink, except the tip, 

 which is occupied by a very large purple- 

 brown blotch ; each wing is traversed by 

 five transverse bars, the first and second of 

 which are indistinct, but almost direct ; the 

 third is waved, and very indistinct ; all the 

 three are composed of a lighter and a darker 

 line ; the fourth is sinuous ; it intersects 

 the apical blotch, and is there pure white, 

 and very distinct, but below the apkal 

 blotch it is comparatively faint ; the fifth 

 is little more than a transverse series of 

 irregular dots ; near the anal angle of the 

 wing is an almost circular black spot, with 

 one or two minor black spots below it : the 

 hind wings are gray-brown ; the head is 

 gray -brown, with an umber-brown crown ; 

 the thorax is gray-brown, with a broad 

 longitudinal stripe of umber-brown ; the 

 body is gray-brown, the extremity rather 

 dark and tufted. 



The CATERPILLAR does not roll in a ring, 

 or fall from its food-plant, or feign death 

 when disturbed; the body is slightly de- 

 pressed, and has a double skin-fold, extend- 

 ing its entire length, on each side, in the 

 region of the spiracles ; it has a prominent 

 median hump on the back of the fifth seg- 

 ment, and 1 a second but less prominent 

 median hump on the back of the twelfth 

 segment. The head is black, slightly shin- 

 ing, and beset with chestnut-coloured hairs : 

 the body is velvety black, mottled and re- 

 ticulated with smoky-gray ; there is a broad 

 median stripe of dingy white down the 

 back ; this stripe is composed of square 

 median markings, which are situated re- 

 spectively on the fourth, sixth, seventh, 

 eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh segments ; 

 that on the fourth segment is isolated, but 

 not so clearly defined as the others, which 

 are strung together by four parallel whitish 

 lines, situated in the interstices of the seg- 

 ments ; these connecting lines are especially 

 observable when the caterpillar is crawling : 

 the humps on the fifth and twelfth segments 

 are bright chestnut-brown ; that on the fifth 

 emits a few longish chestnut-brown hairs ; 

 and there is a series of markings of a simi- 

 lar colour along each side on the elevations 

 of the skin-folds, both above and below the 



