MOTHS 



249 



may be seen from May to July on lupin, vetches, and clover. The red hind-wings 

 of this species are marked with black edges; the front-wings of the male being 

 dark brown, while those of the female are greenish, both marked with five distinct 

 round red spots, two of which, namely, those at the root of the wing, are often 

 blended in one, while the other two, unlike those of the last species, are never 

 confluent. 



As representing another family of moths (Xoctuidce), mention may be made of 



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DEATH S HEAD MOTH. 



the antler moth (Cliarcras gramin is), a species indigenous to northern Europe, whose 

 wrinkled caterpillar is brownish or greenish, marked with five pale lateral stripes, 

 as well as by smooth crests round the first and last rings of its abdomen. The 

 moth has the fore-wings brown, with a whitish vein and blackish triangles near 

 the hind-margin, and several ochreous and fuscous spots ; the hind- wings being grey 

 with a round spot in the centre and various dusky bars. The caterpillar feeds on 

 grasses, apparently of every kind but the foxtails, and has often destroyed whole 

 fields, which have been left bare and dry as if a fire had passed over them. 

 In Sweden and Norway the price of hay has occasionally risen to five times the 



