362 The Rose Garden, 



From the middle of June and onwards during July a beautiful little yellow moth may often 

 he observed to rise from our Rose bushes when shaken. This little creature rejoices in the long 

 name of Dictyopteryx Bergmanniana ; and notwithstanding its beauty is capable in its larval 

 state of inflicting no little damage on the leaves of the Rose. The upper wings are bright 

 golden yellow, and across each run four transverse purplish brown bars, the two central ones 

 obliquely and the other two perpendicularly. Under a microscope these bars are found to be 

 ornamented with silvery scales, of which a patch also is discovered on the yellow ground in the 

 centre of the wing. The hind wings and body are smoke coloured ; the thorax is bright 

 orange. The fringe of the upper wings is pale yellow, of the under wings nearly white. The 

 expansion of the upper wings from tip to tip is about half an inch. The caterpillar when full 

 fed is about half an inch in length and woodlouse shaped i.e., thicker in the centre of the 

 body than at the extremities. In colour it varies from dull yellowish green to pure yellow. 

 It is slightly covered with whitish hairs. The head is black and shining, and on the second 

 segment and on the tail there is a black plate. The front or true legs are black ; the hind legs 

 or claspers the same colour as the body. In feeding it appears to choose by preference the two 

 or three end leaflets of the leaf, spinning them together, and when disturbed it will wriggle out, 

 suspending itself in the air by means of a silken thread, by which also it can reascend when the 

 danger is past.* The caterpillar is most abundant during the middle and end of 

 May ; the moth in June and July. The annexed illustration (Fig. 76) represents the 



Fig 76. moth in its natural size. 



Fig. 77 represents the small Tortrix or Bell Moth, Antithesia ochroleucana. 

 The upper wings of this variety are black brown, with a large yellowish 

 brown patch shading off rather darker at the edge on the outer corner of each 

 wing ; indeed this patch occupies about one-third of the area of the whole Fig. 77 . 



wing. The black brown colour of the remaining two-thirds is slightly marked in an irregular 

 manner with the same pale colour ; the under wings are smoky brown, with a fringe almost 

 white. The head and thorax are black, the body brown. In colour this species varies con- 

 siderably, especially in the colour of the pale patch on the upper wings, which in some 

 specimens is much darker than in others. In size also there is much discrepancy, but on 

 an average the expanse of the upper wings fully extended is four-fifths of an inch from tip 

 to tip. The caterpillar, which occurs commonly, appears generally and in the greatest 

 quantity in May and June. We have taken specimens as late as the end of July, but do not 

 know whether they are merely belated stragglers or referrible to a second brood. The latter 

 supposition is the one we incline to. In colour it is dark rich green ; the best simile in point 

 of colour that can be given is the young leaves of the Rose " Geant des Batailles." The body is 

 furnished with a number of short thin hairs. The head and front or true legs are black ; on 

 the segment of the body following the head there is a shining black plate ; the tail is rather 

 paler in colour than the rest of the body ; the hind legs or claspers of the same colour as the 

 body generally. Its length when full fed is about three-quarters of an inch, and it is thicker 

 in the middle of the body than at the extremities. Its habit appears to be to spin together 

 two or more leaves and live therein, devouring the leaves which constitute its dwelling, and 



* When full fed, the caterpillar of this species lines the inside of its dwelling with silk of a white colour, 

 and changes therein to a pale brown chrysalis. An interesting feature with regard to this chrysalis is the power it 

 has of moving up and down its nest by means of a series of short hooks or spines directed backwards, with which 

 each side of its body is furnished. It possesses this power in common with the pupoe of several of the large moths, 

 especially the wood borers, such as the Goat and Leopard Moths, the Clear wings, &c., and the chief use of it 

 seems to be to enable the chrysalis, just before assuming the moth state, to work its way half out of the case 

 and thus render facility of egress to the moth. For this information the reader is indebted to an article by Mr 

 Westwood on " Rose Insects," in the Gardeners' Magazine of Botany of some years ago. 



