GEOMETERS. 



99 



blotch at the base of the wing ; the second 

 and third are oblong blotches ; both the fourth 

 and the fifth commence a transverse band of 

 blotches, which border the yellow band already 

 ascribed, and on the hind margin itself are 

 2ven black spots, which extend into the white 

 ringe, which is thus made alternately black 

 id white ; the hind wings are white, with two 

 ansverse bands of black spots, the first near 

 the middle, the second on the hind margin ; 

 these are the principal markings, but there are 

 always a few others ; the head is black, the 

 thorax is yellow, with a black spot in the 

 middle, and another smaller one at the base of 

 each wing ; the body is yellow, with a row of 

 black spots down the back, one row down 

 each side, and two rows down the belly. This 

 moth is so subject to vary, that it has been 

 thought best to figure several remarkable 

 varieties, which are in the rich cabinet of Mr. 

 Grcgson, of Liverpool, to whose great kind- 

 ness I am indebted for the opportunity of 

 niching the work with these illustrations. 



I have seen the females of this species 

 isily engaged in oviposition, not only in the 

 rening, but even in the middle of a warm 

 summer's day, depositing a single egg on a 

 leaf of gooseberry or black currant, and then 

 flying off to another. I once counted ten 

 females simultaneously occupied in this man- 

 ner along a garden wall less than eighty yards 

 in length. 



Like the EGGS of most diurnal Lepidoptera 

 they remain but a short time before hatching ; 

 ic young CATERPILLAR feeds for two, three, 

 [>r four weeks, rarely longer, and then spins 

 Jgether the edges of a gooseberry-leaf, having 

 rst taken the precaution of making the leaf 

 fast to its twig by numerous silken cables, 

 which prevent the possibility of its falling 



when dehiscence takes place in the autumn ; 

 in the little cradle thus fabricated, the infant 

 caterpillar sleeps as securely and as fearlessly 



as the sailor in his hammock ; snow-storms 

 and wintry winds are matters of indifference 

 to him ; but no sooner have the gooseberry- 

 bushes begun to assume their livery of green 

 in the spring, than instinct informs him that 

 food is prepared to satisfy his appetite ; so he 

 cuts an opening in his pensile cradle, emerges, 

 and begins to eat. The full-fed caterpillar 

 commonly rests in a straight posture, lying 

 parallel with the branch; but when annoyed 

 he elevates his back, and tucks in his head 

 until it is brought into contact with the 

 abdominal claspers ; if the annoyance be con- 

 tinued, he drops from his food, hanging by a 

 thread, rarely falling to the ground ; but 

 when this is the case, he is bent double, and 

 remains a long time in that posture. Head 

 rather small, prone, partially retractile into 

 the second segment, scarcely notched on the 

 crown ; body of uniform thickness, without 

 excrescences. Head emitting a few strong 

 black hairs, intensely black, with the excep- 

 tion of the clypeus and base of the antennal 

 papilla?, which are white ; body cream- 

 coloured, with a reddish-orange lateral stripe 

 be low the spiracles ; this is conspicuous on 



the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth 

 segments, but less so at each extremity ; the 

 whole of the second segment, and the ventral 



