LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS. 75 



on which they were hatched ; for those produced 

 on the sallow would rather die than eat the poplar, 

 while those propagated on the poplar would not eat 

 the leaves of the sallow. 



It is well known that the Antler Moth,* which 

 devours a considerable variety of grasses, and that to 

 such an extent as almost totally to consume some of 

 the richest pastures of Sweden, is nevertheless so 

 fastidious in its taste, as to reject most scrupulously 

 the fox-tail grass, which in flavour so nearly resembles 

 other grasses on which it feeds, that the most sensitive 

 palate of man is incapable of distinguishing the 

 difference. The larva of the Ringlet Butterfly f will 

 only feed on the poa ;| and the Gate-keeper abstains 

 from all other food but the dog's-tail grass. || 



If we judge from circumstances, the taste in bees 

 does not seem very perfect ; " for," says the elder 

 Huber, " contrary to the received opinion, they dis- 

 play little choice in collecting honey ; nor do they 

 testify greater nicety in the quality of the water which 

 they drink, as the most corrupted marshes and ditches 

 seem to be preferred to the most limpid streams, nay, 

 even to dew itself. Nothing, therefore, is more 

 unequal than the quality of honey, the produce of 

 one district differing from another, and the honey of 

 spring being unlike that of autumn." 



Charaeas graminis of Stephens, 

 f- Hipparchia hyperanthus of Fabricius. 

 \ Poa annna, 

 Hipparchia pamphilus. 

 [) Cynocerus cristate. 

 VOL. I. F 



