GEOMETERS. 



189 



fore wings a remarkably beautiful ami 

 elated character. I fail to discover a 

 iscoidal spot. The hind wings are dingy 

 brown, with two transverse whitish lines, the 

 first slightly waved, the second scalloped. 



The Jiorii appears on the wing in July, and 

 has been taken, but not frequently, in the 

 lake districts of England. It is not reported 

 from Scotland or Ireland. (The scientific 

 iiainu is Cidaria reticulctla.} 



359. The Small Phoenix Moth (Cidaiia siltueattt) 





359. THE SMALL PIKENIX Mora. The palpi 

 ire short and very shaip-pointed ; the antenna? 

 are nearly simple in I oth sexes ; the fore T\ ings 

 are scarcely pointed at the tip ; their colour is 

 lro\vn of two shades, intersected and divided 



by very pale lines ; the dark brown is com- 

 prised in a basal blotch, a median band, a 

 transverse series of conical spots, and three or 

 four hind-marginal blotches, the uppermost of 

 which is the largest ; the hind wings are 

 pale gray-brown ; the head, body, and legs 

 are brown. The size, form, and direction of 

 the markings are so various as to require a 

 series of figures. I am indebted to Mr. 

 Doubleday and Mr. Bond for the loan of the 

 remarkable varieties figured. 



The CATERPILLAU, wheu full-grown, gene- 

 rally rests in a straight position, except that 

 the feet are occasionally attached to the stem 

 of the food-plant, and then the anterior part of 

 the body that is, the head, together with the 

 second, thiid, and fourth segments bent at a 

 right angle with the remainder of the body, 

 the third pair of legs forming the apex of the 

 angle ; when disturbed the legs are detached 

 from the food, and the body bends and oscil- 

 lates backwards and forwards as long as the 

 disturbance continues. The head, after the 

 manner of many other Geometers, is flattened 

 and porrected, and of equal diameter with the 

 body : the body is long, slender, uniformly 

 cylindrical, without tubercles, having dictri- 

 buted very sparingly over its surface short 

 scattered hairs, which are very slender and 

 inconspicuous, except under a lens. The 

 colour of the head is pale whitish green, the 

 face variously marked with clear brown, which 

 colour is sometimes confined to the sides, some- 

 times pervades nearly the whole face ; the 

 body is delicately green, with a median series 

 of brown dots, one of which is seated on the 

 skin-fold between the segments; the belly 

 has a median and narrow but conspicuous 

 white stiipe ; the first and second pair of legs 

 whitish gieen, delicately tinged with brown ; 

 the third pair is brown, the colour continued 

 on the belly to a length about equal to that of 

 the legs themselves; the ventral claspers are 

 pale green, with an exterior tinge of brown ; 

 tlie anal claspers have a double lateral oblique 

 stiipe pointing towards the back ; the anterior 

 half of this stripe is white, the posterior half 

 purple-brown. I found this caterpillar in a 

 garden at Leominstcr, feeding on enchanter's 





