THE GAMMA MOTH. 201 



tures expanding and closing their brilliant wings under 

 the fruit trees on our walls, or basking upon the disk of 

 some autumnal flower; and at another, perhaps, hardly 

 a specimen is to be obtained : nor do they seem like 

 the wasp to be scarce or abundant according to the de- 

 ficiency or plenty of the season, but influenced by other 

 causes. Many of our butterflies are produced by suc- 

 cessive hatches, supplying the places of those which 

 have been destroyed, and hence it is difficult to mark 

 the duration of an individual ; and others, as the nettle, 

 peacock and wood tortoise, in many instances survive 

 the winter, hidden in some recess or sheltered apart- 

 ment, appearing in the spring time-worn and shabby. 

 But van. atalanta appears only in the autumn, not as a 

 preserved creature, but a recent production ; and hence 

 we can ascertain the period of its life to be comprised 

 only between those few days that intervene from the 

 end of September to the end of October, by which 

 time its food in our gardens has pretty well disappeared. 

 Some sheltered wall, garnished with the bloom of the 

 ivy, may prolong its being a little longer, but the- cold 

 and dampness of the season soon destroy it ; rendering 

 the life of this creature, the most beautiful of our lepi- 

 dopterous tribes, of very brief duration. 



The gamma moth (phalaena gamma) is also another 

 creature, that seems in no way affected by moist seasons, 

 which retard the appearance, or apparently destroy so 

 many others of its kind. This creature has imprinted 

 on its dark wings a white character, something like the 

 letter Y, but more like the small Greek gamma, and 

 hence has received a pertinent name. Like Cain, it 

 bears with it, in all its wanderings, a mark that dis- 

 tinguishes it from others of its race. Its habits also are 

 quite unlike those of other moths, as it feeds principally 

 in the day-time ; and we see it late in the summer 

 whisking about with all the activity and action of the 

 hummingbird sphinx. Like the latter it keeps its wings, 

 while feeding, in a constant state of vibration ; haunts 

 clover-fields, and the yellow blossoms of the wild mus- 

 tard, and the heads of the pasture scabious. It seems 

 little mindful of the common frosts of October, retiring 



