222 



BKITISH MOTHS. 



eleventh segments there are two warts below 

 the spiracle instead of one ; all the warts emit 

 silky hairs : at this period the head is black, 

 the body opaque black, with a broad pale 

 yellow median stripe, which is composed of 

 four narrow approximate stripes, and is inter- 

 rupted on the fifth and twelfth segments by 

 the dorsal humps, which are black ; all the 

 warts are pale yellow : the belly, anal flap, 

 and anal claspers are smoke-coloured, with a 

 tinge of pink ; the legs black ; the ventral 

 chtspers smoke-coloured. After the last ec- 

 dysis, which takes place in May, the cater- 

 pillar leaves its domicile, rarely returning to. 

 it, and its appearance is greatly altered ; the 

 black dorsal humps remain, the warts and 

 hairs remain ; the warts are orange-red, the 

 hairs nearly white; the whole body with these 

 exceptions is reddish gray, spotted with black ; 

 the body having greatly increased in size is 

 now wider than the head, which is black only 

 on the sides, having a red stripe down the 

 face, a black clypeus and a white labrum : it 

 still spins together the leaves of its food-plant, 

 the lower usually remaining flat while the 

 upper is raised into a manifest convexity ; in 

 this retreat it changes to a CHRYSALIS of a dark- 

 brown colour, and rounded at the anal 

 extremity. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in April 

 and July, the chrysalis producing the April 

 brood remains in that state throughout the 

 winter. It occurs in the caterpillar state in our 

 northern, midland, and southern counties, and 

 also near Clonmel, in Ireland. (The scientific 

 name is Clostera curtula.) 



3!H. The Scarce Chocolate-tip (Clostera ar<aclion't<t}. 



394. THK SCARCE CHOCOLATE-TIP. The 

 antenna? are moderately pectinated in the 

 male, very slightly in the female; the fore 

 wings have the costal margin straight, and the 



tip obtuse ; their colour is brownish-gray 

 with a tinge of pink, except the tip, which is 

 occupied by a very large purple-brown blotch ; 

 each wing is traversed by five transverse 

 bars, the first and second of which are indis- 

 tinct, but almost direct ; the third is waved, 

 and very indistinct ; all the three are com- 

 posed of a lighter and a darker line ; the 

 fourth is sinuous ; it intersects the apical 

 blotch, and is there pure white, and very 

 distinct, but below the apical blotch it is 

 comparatively faint ; the fifth is little more 

 than a transverse series of irregular dots . 

 near the anal angle of the wing is an almost 

 circular black spot, with one or two minor 

 black spots below it: the hind wings are 

 gray -brown ; the head is gray-brown, with an 

 umber-brown crown ; the thorax is gray- 

 brown, with a broad longitudinal stripe of 

 umber-brown ; the body is gray-brown, the 

 extremity rather dark and tufted. 



The CATERPILLAR does not roll in a ring, or 

 fall from its food -pi ant, or feign death when 

 disturbed ; the body is slightly depressed, 

 and has a double skin-fold, extending its 

 entire length, on each side, in the region 

 of the spiracles ; it has a prominent median 

 hump on the back of the fifth segment, 

 and a second but less prominent median 

 hump on the back of the twelfth segment. 

 The head is black, slightly shining, and beset 

 with chestnut-coloured hairs : the body is 

 velvety black, mottled and reticulated with 

 smoky-gray ; there is a broad median stripe of 

 dingy white down the back ; this stripe is 

 composed of square median markings, which 

 are situated respectively on the fourth, sixth, 

 seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh 

 segments ; that on the fourth segment is 

 isolated, but not so clearly defined as the 

 others, which arc strung together by four 

 parallel whitish lines, situated in the inter- 

 stices of the segments; these connecting lines 

 are especially observable when the caterpillar 

 is crawling : the humps on the fifth and 

 twelfth segments are bright chestnut-brown ; 

 that on the fifth emits a few lougish chestnut- 

 brown hairs ; and there is a series of markings 

 of a similar colour alone; each side on the 



