280 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



disk, and is yellowish on the sides ; the body 

 is dusky ; the anterior pair of thighs is densely 

 clothed with long woolly scales. 



The EGG is laid on the stems of burdock 

 (Arctium Lappa), thistles (Carduus), elder 

 (Sambucus nigra), hemp agrimony (Eupalo- 

 rium cannabinum), fox-glove (Digitalis 

 europcea), mullein (Verbascum Thapsus), and 

 even the cultivated potato of our gardens ; and 

 the young caterpillar enters the stems through 

 an excessively small opening, no trace of which 

 can be discovered a few days after it has 

 achieved the passage : the plant in which I 

 have most commonly found this caterpillar is 

 the marsh thistle (Carduus palustris), and this 

 only by cutting open the stem about midsum- 

 mer, when the full-grown caterpillar will be 

 seen comfortably ensconced in the interior, and 

 devouring the pith. When removed from its 

 domicile, it neither feigns death nor rolls in a 

 ling, but deliberately crawls away to some 

 haven of refuge, which all the internal feeders 

 seem to consider dependent on darkness. The I 

 head is narrower than the second segment, into I 

 which it can be partially withdrawn, but when j 

 the caterpillar is crawling, the head is por- j 

 rected : it is rather flattened, glabrous, corne- 

 ous, and of an ochreous-yellow colour : the" 

 body is nearly cylindrical, but rather attenua- 

 ted at both extremities ; it has a corneous 

 plate on the back of the second segment, and 

 another on the back of the thirteenth segment ; 

 both of these are hard and glabrous, the colour 

 of these plates is dingy brown : the rest of 

 the body is soft, maggot-like, and of a pale 

 putty-colour tinged with yellow or pink, and 

 it has a number of dark brown dorsal dots on 

 each segment, each of which emits a minute 

 bristle ; these dots form a transverse series j 

 on the third and fourth segments, and a kind j 

 of square on those which follow ; there are 

 also other lateral dots, generally four on each 

 side of each segment ; the legs are horny and 

 tipped with brown ; the claspers soft, and of 

 the same colour as the rest of the body. I 

 have found these caterpillars full-fed during 

 the first week in July in the stems of the tall 

 marsh thistles, which often abound in Joyn- 

 wood, at the back of the inn at Birch 



Wood Corner : scarcely one of these stately 

 plants escapes, and its fate is plainly indicated 

 by the sickly and moribund state of the 

 remarkable clustered head of flowers witb 

 which this species is so conspicuously crowned. 

 The annual gathei'ing of entomologists at 

 Birch Wood during the first week in July, 

 when these observations have been so often 

 repeated, seems to fix indelibly on the mind 

 the period when the caterpillar has arrived at 

 its full growth. When about to change, it 

 prepares a means of escape by gnawing away 

 the substance of the thistle-stem, leaving only 

 the most slender and delicate epidermis which 

 always remains intact ; and then changes to 

 an elongate, cylindrical, smooth, dark brown 

 CHRYSALIS, which has a small nipple-like pro- 

 jection from the crown of the head, and two 

 sharp spines placed transversely on the ter- 

 minal or anal segment. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June, 

 and is generally distributed throughout our 

 English counties : it is common and widely 

 distributed in Ireland and Scotland. (The 

 scientific name is Gortynaflavago.} 



Obs. This species is remarkably obnoxious 

 to the attacks of an ichneumon ; scarcely one 

 in twenty seems to reach maturity ; but the 

 mode in which the ichneumon contrives to 

 introduce its egg into the concealed caterpillar 

 has not been ascertained. 



471. The Ear-Moth (Hydroecia nictitans). 



471. THF EAR- MOTH. The palpi are 

 slightly curved upwards, but not very pro- 

 minent ; the antennae appear thicker in the 



