246 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



crumbled earth or mortar, in which they 

 undergo the change, but sometimes they use 

 for this purpose the cocoons they had pre- 

 viously constructed as habitations during 

 their caterpillar state ; they usually remain 

 in the chrysalis state thi-oughout June and 

 July. On account of its peculiar economy, 

 this species is rather difficult to manage in 

 confinement ; the caterpillars from which my 

 description is made, proved exceedingly rest- 

 less in confinement, and pertinaciously re- 

 fused to build or to feed on the diversified 

 banquet of lichens, which I provided for their 

 well-being. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July 

 and August, and is abundant, but local, in 

 our southern counties, occurring in plenty 

 on walls at Exeter, Plymouth, Brighton, &c., 

 and formerly on the canal bridge in the Old 

 Kent Eoad, where I have not seen it for 

 twenty-five years; I know of no other 

 locality in the London district : it comes 

 freely to sugar. (The scientific name is 

 Bryophila glandifera.} 



422. The Marbled Beauty (Bryophila Perla). 



422. TQE MARULED BEAUTY. The antenna) 

 are slender, simple, and similar in both sexes ; 

 the fore wiugs are very nearly straight on the 

 costa ; the tip is blunt ; their colour is pale 

 gray, almost white, and varied with darker 

 markings of a smoky gray, but these as well 

 as the general surface of the wing are often 

 suffused with a greenish and sometimes with 

 an ochreous tinge ; there is always a dark blotch 

 at the base of the wing, and this is followed 

 by a white bar, which extends from the costal 

 to the inner margin ; the discoidal spots are 

 very large, vague, and almost united with each 

 other, and also with the inner margin by a 

 smoky cloud ; the costal margin and fringe 

 are spotted with blackish gray, and there are 

 several transverse lines of the same colour. 



The hind wings are pale, but smoky towards 

 the margin ; the head and thorax are white, 

 the body smoky gray. 



The EGGS, which are white, are laid in 

 August and September on those fat lichens 

 which are so commonly found growing on 

 brick Avails : in the neighbourhood of London 

 are many such localities, and in one in my 

 own immediate neighbourhood, there is a 

 brick wall which these little moths have 

 colonised, and which I have been in the habit 

 of visiting for the last twenty years. 



The young CATERPILLARS, which are at first 

 very dark coloured, and very hairy, emerge 

 from the egg-shell in about a fortnight 

 indeed, the time varies from ten to twenty 

 days ; at the approach of winter they are still 

 very small, and, spinning little silken cocoons 

 in the crevices of the bricks or mortar, remain 

 entirely concealed during the winter ; in the 

 spring they begin to feed again, eating nothing 

 but the flat lichens on which the eggs are 

 laid, and these only when saturated with 

 moisture ; the colony I have more par- 

 ticularly observed, is on a wall facing the 

 south, and exposed to the mid-day sun, but 

 the caterpillars always retire from the sun- 

 shine, concealing themselves in little silken 

 domiciles; they feed morning and evening, 

 when the atmosphere is laden with moisture ; 

 and in wet weather in the day also ; the 

 lichens absorb water, whether from dew or 

 rain, and it is only in this moistened state 

 that they are relished by these little cater- 

 pillars, which then feed greedily, and are 

 rarely found at rest except in their cocoons. 

 When full-fed, the head is rather small, 

 and is retractile within the second segment; 

 it is shining, slightly hairy, and of a bluish 

 black colour on the crown and sides, but the 

 face is spotted with black ; the body is stout, 

 and of uniform thickness throughout, with 

 the back slightly depressed, and the belly 

 flattened ; each segment has twelve small 

 warts, and each wart emits a bristle ; the 

 dorsal area is almost entirely occupied by a 

 broad slate-coloured stripe, which is bounded 

 on each side by a series of orange markings, 

 narrow, linear, or somewhat crescentic ; be- 



