226 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



same colour as the fore wings; the body of 

 the same colour as the hind wings. 



The CATERPILLAR has a greenish head, and 

 the body is uniformly cylindrical to the 

 twelfth segment, which is rather tumid, and 

 has two distinct but approximate warts on its 

 back. Tbe colour is glaucous green, paler on 

 the back ; the warts are tipped with pink, and 

 armed at the tip with a small fascicle of short 

 black bristles ; a slender bluish inedian stripe 

 originates on the back of the third segment, 

 and passes in a direct line to between the 

 pink-tipped warts on the twelfth segment; 

 the back is particularly inclined to white on 

 each side of this median stripe ; on each side 

 of the body is a series of white spots, most of 

 which enclose a black spiracle, and behind 

 each white spot, and closely adjoining it, is a 

 pink spot : this series of spots is connected 

 together by a number of slender white lines, 

 and the whole together constitute what might 

 with propriety be called a spiracular stripe. 

 All parts of the body emit scattered black 

 bristles ; the head and second segment have 

 more than the following segments ; the legs 

 and claspers are pinkish ; the belly is dis- 

 tinctly green. It feeds on birch (Betula alba), 

 maple (Acer campcstris\ oak (Quircus robur}, 

 &c., and is usually full-fed in September ; it 

 spins a slight cocoon on the surface of the 

 earth, and remains in the CHRYSALIS state all 

 the winter. (See fig. 9, p. 203.) 



The MOTH seems to Jiave no especial season. 

 I have found it from May to September, and 

 the caterpillar will occasionally fall to the 

 beating-stick as long as the oak remains in 

 leaf. The species is common wherever I have 

 collected in Ergland, and Mr. Birchall informs 

 us it is abundant at 1'oweiscourtandKillarney, 

 in Ireland. (The scientific name is Notodonta 

 cum "I hi ti . ) 



400. The Maple Prominent (Xutodontu cucnUitxi}. 

 100. TIIK MAIM.I: PHOMINEXT. The palpi 



are small and inconspicuous; the antennae are 

 slightly pectinated in the male, quite simple 

 in the female : the fore wings have the costa 

 very slightly arched, the tip blunt, the hind 

 margin slightly scalloped, and the inner 

 margin with a slight median projection ; their 

 colour is rusty-brown ; there is a large but 

 vague paler blotch at the costal portion of the 

 base occupying nearly a quarter of the entire 

 area of the wing ; the hind margin of the 

 wing is brown at the tip, but grayish below 

 the tip ; the gray is bounded on the inner 

 side by a slender white bar, which is inter- 

 rupted in the middle ; most of the wing-rays 

 are dark, but not uniformly so ; the fringe is 

 alternately pale gray and dark brown : the 

 hind wings are dingy-brown with a spotted 

 fringe, and a dark suffused blotch at the anal 

 angle : the head and thorax are coloured 

 much like the fore wings, the body much like 

 the hind wings. 



According to Hiibner, the CATERPILLAR rests 

 with the anal extremity raised, and the anal 

 claspers not touching the food-plant : the head 

 is rather flat, and about equal in width to the 

 second segment ; the body gradually increases 

 in size to the fifth or sixth segment, and then 

 as gradually decreases to the twelfth, which 

 again increases, rising into a mcdio-dorsal 

 pyramidal hump : the colour of the head is 

 brown, of the body dingy-white, with a 

 medio-dorsal brown stripe, which commencing 

 immediately behind the head, expands on the 

 third, fourth, and fifth segments, and then 

 again contiacts and terminates in the pyra- 

 midal hump ; the spiracles are white, each 

 surrounded by a black ring ; and there is a 

 black dot immediately above and below each ; 

 the ventral area, legs, and claspers, arc 

 brown. (See fig. 11, p. 203.) 



The MOTH appears on the wing in May. Mr. 

 Greene is said to have taken fifty-four of the 

 caterpillars at Tring, and he informs us th:i 

 he " found a chrysalis under moss on a 

 tree (F<tf/us sylvatica\ having doubtless war 

 dered from some neighbouring maple." This 

 was in October, at Halton, in Buckingham- 

 shire. (The scientific name i 

 cucuttina.} 





