400 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



pale spot being often accompanied by a darker 

 one ; the first of these series is before the 

 orbicular, the second and third beyond the 

 reniform ; the hind wings of the male are 

 very pale gray, with a crescentic discoidal spot, 

 a transverse interrupted median line, and an 

 interrupted hind-marginal series of linear 

 spots, all darker ; the wings of the female 

 are smoky-gray, with faint indications of the 

 same markings as in the male ; the head, 

 thorax, and body are nearly of the same 

 colour as the fore wings. 



The EGGS, which are laid about the begin- 

 ning of ( )ctober, hatch early in November ; 

 the CATERPILLARS remain very small during the 

 winter, and are mostly hidden amongst roots 

 of grass. About the beginning of January 

 they begin to exhibit themselves at night, and 

 soon feed very ravenously on groundsel, &c., 

 and grow rapidly. They are of a green 

 colour, with a whitish stripe along the 

 spiracles ; they retain the green colour 

 after several moults, when they appear in 

 a mottled olive suit. When young they 

 repose in the position of the privet hawk- 

 moth (Sphinx Ligustri), with their head and 

 fore legs erect, on the stems of dry grass. As 

 the spring advances they will feed on chick- 

 weed, dock, dandelion, scabious, burnet, &c., 

 until May, when they assume the CHRYSALIS 

 state. Mr. Dell, who has paid great attention 

 to rearing the species, says : " I never had any 

 remain in the caterpillar state until June ; out 

 of many dozens during two or three years' ex 

 perience of rearing them, I never saw any 

 above the surface after May. I do not by any 

 means think them a tender caterpillar to rear; 

 I have during the last two or three years 

 reared about three-fifths of them on an 

 average. They form a cocoon of a web-like 

 texture, mixed with the earth ; the chrysalids 

 are rather blunt at the ends ; they generally 

 lie in that state for about four months. My 

 method of rearing them is this ; in a clear 

 wide-mouthed glass bottle I put the eggs, also 

 a piece of white paper, and cover over the top 

 of the bottle with a fine piece of gauze, so 

 that when the caterpillars hatch I can see 

 them creep on the paper ; I then put in some 



dry stems of fine grass and a small leaf of 

 groundsel, so that there should not be too 

 much refuse left ; they soon leave their food 

 and creep on the fine grass to repose, and I 

 then remove the refuse ; every evening I put 

 in fresh food, and always remove what they 

 leave ; but after awhile, when they improve 

 in size, I remove them to a medium-sized 

 flower-pot, half filled with loose mould and 

 pieces of turfy grass, under which they 

 generally hide by day, and at night they come 

 out to feed, when I put in some fresh L aves : 

 in clearing out the refuse care must be taken 

 not to throw away any of the caterpillars 

 which may be hid in it. By following these 

 instructions I think there would be no diffi- 

 culty in rearing these caterpillars." 



To this I must add a description of the 

 full-fed caterpillar. The head is obviously 

 narrower than the body, extremely shining, 

 but emitting several slender hairs ; the body 

 is uniformly cylindrical, obese, and smooth, 

 but emitting a very few, very distant, short 

 and h'ne hairs ; these are only discernible 

 under a lens. The head is olive-brown, tes- 

 selated with paler markings. The body is 

 dull olive-brown on the back, pale transparent 

 olive-green on the belly, and having a paler 

 stripe dividing the two colours, and including 

 the spiracles ; the back has a series of some- 

 what lozenge-shaped oblique paler marks, the 

 whole of these markings being obscure and 

 indistinct, yet, viewed together, constituting 

 a dark median stripe, with a paler and inter- 

 rupted stripe on each side ; the legs are 

 shining, the claspers opaque, both pellucid, 

 and of a yellow-green colour. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in August, 

 but seems to be a very local species ; it is 

 plentiful in Devonshire, where Mr. Reading 

 records its occurrence in gardens and on street 

 lamps at Woodside, North Hill, Plymouth 

 Hoe, Crabtree, Plymbridge, Tavistock, Tor- 

 quay, Teignmouth, and Alphington ; it occurs 

 in Dorsetshire, in the New Forest, and Isle of 

 Wight, and at Birkenhead in Cheshire ; and 

 Mr. Birchall informs us it is common at 

 Howth, in Ireland. (The scientific name is 

 Epunda Lichenea.) 



