214 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



388. The Puss Moth (Dicranura vinulu}. 



388. THE Puss MOTH. The antennae are 

 pectinated in both sexes, but much more 

 strongly so in the male ; the fore wings are 

 rounded at the tip, their colour is gray, with 

 very numerous darker markings, some of 

 which those nearest the base and costal 

 margin are generally short, transverse, and 

 bounded by the wing-rays; some of them, 

 however, unite in forming an obscure trans- 

 verse band near the base of the wing ; still 

 nearer the base is a transverse series of five 

 or six black spots, and there are one or two 

 others at the very base : the principal wing- 

 rays are denuded of scales, and therefore 

 appear yellowish, but the parallel rays, ex- 

 tending to the hind margin are clothed with 

 black scales; there is a distinct crescent- 

 shaped discoidal spot, between which and the 

 hind margin are several deeply zigzag smoke- 

 coloured lines ; on the hind margin are nine 

 or ten distinct smoke-coloured streaks, alter- 

 nating with the wing-rays, and terminating in 

 black marginal dots: the hind wings are 

 snowy - white at the base, rather smoke- 

 coloured in the disc ; they have a faint dis- 

 coidal spot, and four or five dark spots in the 

 fringe : the head is white, the thorax nearly 

 white, with eight intensely-black spots ; the 



body is whitish-gray, with transverse smoke- 

 coloured markings. The female is much 

 larger than the male, and has the wings and 

 body considerably darker. 



The EGGS are laid on the leaves of willows 

 and poplars, and the young larva? when they 

 emerge from the egg-shell are almost black? 

 and have two processes, something like ears, 

 standing out from the front of the second 

 segment, one on each side of the head ; as the 

 caterpillars increase in size, these little ears 

 gradually decrease in relative magnitude, and 

 at length merge in the black spots adjoining 

 the head, which are presently to be described. 

 The full-grown CA.TEEPILLAR rests with its flat 

 head drawn into the second segment, and its 

 anterior segments elevated ; the body is quite 

 smooth, the dorsal outline rising to a pointed 

 hump on the fourth segment, then falling to 

 the sixth segment, then of uniform substance 

 to the ninth, and thence the body is rapidly 

 attenuated to the thirteenth, which terminates 

 in two horns covered with scabrous points, each 

 emitting, when the caterpillar is irritated, a 

 slender, pink, drooping filament ; the head is 

 pale brown in front, and black at the sides ; the 

 recess into which the head is withdrawn is 

 pink, with a large black spot on each side ; 



