210 



BRITISH MOTHS 



are white with a hiud-marginal series of pale 

 smoke-coloured spjts : the head is whitish; 

 the thorax white with a smoke-coloured blotch 

 in the centre ; the body is smoke-coloured- 

 paler on the sides. 



The head of the CATERPILLAR has a bifid 

 crown, its divisions being obtuse: the second 

 segment has four minute pointed warts, trans- 

 versely arranged ; the third segment has two 

 larger dorsal warts, placed transversely ; the 

 fourth has two still larger dorsal warts, also 

 placed transversely; the eleventh has a trans- 

 verse dorsal protuberance ; and the twelfth a 

 pair of minute dorsal warts, also placed trans- 

 versely ; every wart terminates in a minute 

 bristle : the ventral claspers are eight in num- 

 ber, and situated on the usual segments ; the 

 caudal claspers are aborted or soldered to- 

 gether, and form a single terminal and gra- 

 dually attenuated spine or spike, which never 

 appears to touch the leaf on which the cater- 

 pillar is feeding, but to be elevated in the air 

 without occupation ; at the base of this spike 

 ig a minute wart on each side ; the body is 

 altogether rugose, and the skin pitted with 

 small depressions. The colour is dingy-brown, 

 with a narrow median darker dorsal stripe, and 

 numerous rivulet markings, and there is also a 

 pale lateral elevated line on each side of the 

 twelfth segment. It feeds on whitethorn 

 (Cratocgus Qxyacantha}, and is full-fed the first 

 week in July, when it spins, a tough gummy 

 cocoon attaching it to a twig of the hawthorn, 

 generally in the axil of one of the thorns, and 

 fastens on the exterior of the cocoon frag- 

 ments of the still green leaves, in such a 

 manner as to conceal it effectually from sight : 

 in this the CHRYSALIS remains not longer than 

 two or three weeks. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in May, 

 and again in August : it is certainly double- 

 brooded, and is generally distributed over 

 England and Ireland. (The scientific name 

 is Cilix ftpinula.} 



Huworth unites this moth with the species 

 of Platypteryx above described, with which, 

 he justly observes, it agrees in its most singular 

 caterpillar, and disagrees only in wanting the 

 hooked tip to the wings. 



385. The Alder Kitten (Dicranura bicitxjt 



385. THE ALDER KITTEN.- The antei 

 of the male are strongly pectinated, those of 

 the female slightly so ; the shaft of the an- 

 tenna) is white, the pectinations black : the 

 fore wings are rather narrow with a very 

 straight " costal margin, and a rounded tip ; 

 their colour is white with a broad transverse 

 dark gray median band, the interior margin of 

 which is nearly straight ; the exterior margin 

 is very different in different specimens ; in 

 some it is nearly straight, in others it has a 

 wide concave notch ; it is always bordered 

 with a black line more or less accompanied 

 with yellow ; the boundaries of this band are 

 always distinct and clearly marked ; between 

 this band and the base of the wing is a trans- 

 verse series of five or six black spots ; and at 

 the base of the wing is a single black spot ; 

 exterior to the band is a small discoidal spot, 

 and beyond this are three slender zigzag 

 dark lines, the outer of which expands on the 

 costa into a large transverse blotch of the same 

 colour as the band ; on the hind margin is a 

 feries of seven or eight small black spots : the 

 hind wings are nearly white, with a pule 

 smoke-coloured bar near the hind margin and 

 a series of black spots on the margin : the 

 head is whitish ; the thorax variegated 

 with black, white, and yellow ; the body 

 almost white, with dark gray but ill-defined 

 bands. 



The CATERPILLAR rests witli the anal ex- 

 tremity elevated : the head is slightly nar- 

 rower than the second segment ; the body is 

 almost uniformly cylindrical, but somewhat 

 humped on the sixth segment, from which it 

 gradually decreases in size to the anal extre- 

 mity, where it terminates in two long caudal 

 horns directed backwards : the colour of the 



