DAY-FLYING MOTHS 



perhaps have a preference for the sweets to be found 

 in tubular flowers, such as honeysuckle, jasmine, or 

 valerian, it may often be seen probing and testing the 

 saccharine productions of various kinds of blossom. 



It is essentially a sun-loving and day-flying moth, 

 but it apparently takes a midday nap, as it is chiefly 

 seen in the forenoon and again after about two o'clock. 

 These periods of rest and activity may synchronise 

 with similar stages in plant life. 



Among the divisions of Lepidoptera known as Arc- 

 tiidae, Noctuidse, and Geometridae there are several 

 species with the day-flying habit strongly developed, 

 but space will only suffice for brief mention of a few 

 of the more generally distributed of these. 



Although many of the Arctiidae, or Tiger Moths, are 

 more or less active in the daytime, they do not get 

 on the wing in quite the same voluntary manner 

 as does the Cinnabar Moth. This insect, with its 

 crimson splashed blue-grey fore wings and crimson 

 hindwings, imparts life and colour to the rough fields 

 and waste places in which it disports itself, on sunny 

 days, in the early summer time. The caterpillars,- 

 which are orange with black rings, are often exceedingly 

 abundant on ragwort, but the moths are rarely very 

 numerous. It is one of the moths designated common 

 that the tyro is enraptured with on first making its 

 acquaintance. He shows it to the expert in great glee, 



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