INSECTS I HAVE WATCHED 



115 



flowers of April and May, and the rather disappointing yellow 

 blossoms of the Hedge Mustard, which come to maturity when 

 Flora's gaiety knows no bounds, and Nature's living mosaic in 

 the fields is almost impossible to piece together. 



Stinging Nettles I delight in for several reasons. The plant's 

 anatomy, its physiology and communal instincts, its use to man, 

 bird, snail, and insect, make a strong appeal to one steeped in 

 the nature-study of any given animal or plant, but I am also 

 enamoured of the Nettle 

 because in Spring and 

 Summer it gives to the 

 woodland where I daily 

 wander, a green chaplet 

 which is refreshing as I 

 meander along the well- 

 trodden path bordering 

 the Nettle colonies. Then 

 again, it is the favourite 

 food plant of the furry 

 larva of the Tiger Moth, 

 which, even now I am 

 grown up, I rear in a 

 " cage," so as to witness 

 the change from larva 

 to pupa, and the final 

 emergence of the perfect 

 Moth from its skittle - 

 shaped shroud. The 

 change from one state 



to another is carried out FIG. 51. TIGER MOTH. 



in double -quick time, and 



must surely be one of the most rapid series of metamorphoses of 

 any British insect. The " woolly bears," as the larvae are called 

 in some districts, are greatly relished by the Cuckoo, as also are 

 those of the Drinker Moth and Oak Eggar. 



Beetles, either turned up from below ground when digging in 

 the garden, or from underneath a log or boulder, are great friends 

 of mine, and I much admire the handsome male Stag Beetle clad 

 in his rich chocolate-coloured coat of mail. 



One day I watched an interesting courtship between the two 

 sexes of this species. It was a simple country comedy, with only 

 two actors upon the great stage and one person in the audience, 



