70 



BEITISH MOTHS. 



body are the same colour as the Avings. It is 

 remarkable, that when this moth comes out 

 of the chrysalis in wet weather, every part of 

 it. is suffused with a red tinge. 



The CATERPILLAR is green very much the 

 same colour as the moth. Its head is notched 

 on the crown. It feeds on the common broom. 

 The caterpillar is found in June, and the moth 

 in July. 



The EGG is laid on dyer's green-weed 

 ( Genista anglica] and common broom (Spartium 

 Scopariuni), generally between the 20th and 

 30th of July; and the young caterpillars 

 usually emerge in fifteen days : they feed but 

 sparingly, and are veiy small when winter 

 sets in. My specimens were full-fed on the 

 14th of June. 



The Morn appears on the wing in July, 

 and is common in most of our English counties ; 

 it has also been taken in Scotland, and Mr. 

 Birchall says it is common and generally dis- 

 tributed in Ireland. (The scientific name is 

 Pseudoterpna cytisaria.} 



152. Tho Large Emerald (Cfeometra papilionaria). 



152. THE LARGE EMERALD. The antenna? 

 are ciliated in the male, simple in the female : 

 the wings are uniformly green : the fore 

 wings have three transverse, waved, white 

 lines, not very distinct : the one nearest the 

 base much shorter than the others: these 

 lines are very distant at the costal margin, 

 and much nearer at the inner margin : inter- 

 mediate between the first and second is a 

 crescent-shaped, dark green mark ; the third 

 or outer line is broken up into crescentic 

 spots : the hind wings have a beautifully 

 scalloped white line passing transversely across 

 the middle, and dividing the wing exactly in 

 half. In the centre of the space enclosed by 



this scalloped line is a crescent-shaped darker 

 mark ; and exactly intermediate, between the 

 scalloped line and the hind margin, is a trans- 

 verse row of white dots: the antennae and 

 fore legs are whitish : the head and thorax 

 green ; the body nearly white. 



The EGGS are laid in the autumn, on birch 

 ( Betula, alba] ; the young CATERPILLAR emerges 

 in two or three weeks, according to the tem- 

 perature, and feeds for a short time only, 

 hybernating when very small : in early spring 

 it again begins to feed, and is full-fed 

 towards the end of May. In June it spins 

 together some of the leaves of its food-plant, 

 forming a thin whitish cocoon, in which it 

 changes to a green CHRYSALIS, having brown- 

 ish wing-cases, and a reddish blotch on the 

 back of the same segments, which have the 

 red-brown stripe in the larva. 



The MOTH appears on the wing about mid- 

 summer : it is tolerably common in most of 

 our English counties, and has been taken in 

 Scotland. Mr. Birchall says that in Ireland 

 it is common at Killarney and in the county 

 Wicklow. (The scientific name is Geometra 

 papilionaria.} 



153. The Essex Emerald (Geometra smaraydaria). 



153. THE ESSEX EMERALD. All the wings 

 green : the fore wings with two transparent, 

 waved, whitish lines, and a distinct white 

 spot between them : the costal margin of the 

 fore wings is tinged with yellow. 



My late friend, Thomas Ingall, found the 

 CATERPILLAR of this species on the Essex coast, 

 but unfortunately did not know what a prize 

 he had obtained until the moth emerged ; it 

 was of a dull olive-green, with humps on the 

 sixth and tenth segments. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in May, and 

 has only been taken on the coast of Essex. 

 (The scientific name is Geometra smaragdaria.} 



