62 



AUTUMN AND WINTER 



spicuous with its bright chestnut wings and capering flight in 

 the sunshine. The female is wingless ; she sits on the trunk 

 of a tree, lays her eggs and dies, often not moving more than 

 a few inches from the web of the cocoon from which she 

 emerged. 



The variety of night moths diminishes as September 

 draws on and leaves the life of August behind ; but a few 

 striking autumnal species now first appear. Most conspicuous 

 is the red underwing, which is not uncommon in the south of 

 England, and is often attracted by lamps in rooms with open 



windows, or is found resting on walls 

 in passages, to which it has also been 

 drawn by lights at night. It is a 

 large moth with four wings of mottled 

 and banded grey, and hind wings of 

 crimson, striped with black. Another 

 handsome and much commoner moth 

 is the herald, which can easily be 

 recognised by its stout body, the 

 irregular outline of its fore wings, their 

 conspicuous white lines and orange blotches on a grey ground, 

 and above all by its fondness for sheds and houses. Very 

 occasionally, the herald can be caught feeding on flowers or 

 on entomologists' sugar after dusk ; but for every one insect 

 seen flying out-of-doors, probably a hundred will be found 

 resting in dark corners. This curious passion for hibernation 

 seems to seize them almost as soon as they emerge. The 

 fretted wings, painted with autumn tints, doubtless mimic a 

 crumpled autumn leaf when the herald hibernates in natural 

 surroundings, though they make it a rather fantastically con- 

 spicuous moth when seen in a storehouse or stable. Several 

 other moths appearing in autumn are coloured like autumn 

 leaves; common examples are the August and September 



HERALD MOTH 



