434 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



this singular position it is by no means easy 

 to detect, because the colour of its meclio- 

 clorsal stripe much resembles that of a stem 

 of the food-plant. It is extremely active, and 

 when touched throws itself on the ground, and 

 continues to twist itself about with great 

 energy : the head is rather narrower than the 

 second segment; the body is attenuated 

 towards both extremities, and the divisions of 

 the segments are not very clearly defined ; 

 from every part of the head and body spring 

 a few very slender and very inconspicuous 

 scattered hairs : the colour of the head is 

 apple-green, with a reddish band on the hind 

 part of the crown, which is often concealed by 

 the anterior margin of the second segment; 

 the colour of the body is apple-green with a 

 broad medio-dorsal red or violet compound 

 stripe, rather narrowed at both ends and 

 bordered by a brown line; the spiracles are 

 yellow, delicately ciccled with black, and 

 each is situated in an oblique shuttle- 

 shaped mark of the same colour as the medio- 

 dorsal stripe ; all the markings are delicately 

 outlined in black; the ventral area is blue or 

 glaucous-green, with five approximate, narrow, 

 and rather indistinct white stripes ; the legs 

 and claspers are of the same colour as the 

 body. It feeds on the golden-rod, and when 

 full-fed descends to the ground, and there 

 constructs an oval cocoon of considerable 

 strength and solidity by the intermixture of 

 silk and earth, and in this cocoon changes to 

 a CHRYSALIS of a pale yellowish-green colou'r, 

 with red-brown incisions ; the cases of the 

 wings and thorax are also yellow-green arid 

 very transparent ; the anal extremity is dark 

 brown, dilated, and spatulate. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June : Mr. 

 Doubleday has three British examples of this 

 insect, which were raised from caterpillars 

 found feeding on the golden-rod in Darenth 

 wood. This species was described by the 

 late Mr. Stephens in his " Illustrations of 

 British Entomology," vol. iii. p. 87, under 

 the name of Cucullia thapsiphaga, in 1829, and 

 figured in the " Transactions of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of London," vol. ii., pi. iii., 

 fig. 7, under the name of Cucullia Solidaginis, 



in 1837. (It is without doubt the Cucullia, 

 Gnapkalii of continental authors.) 



673. The Wormwood (Cucullia Absyntliii). 



673. THE WORMWOOD. The palpi are in- 

 conspicuous, the terminal joints only just 

 appearing in front of the frontal tuft ; the 

 antenna? are simple in both sexes : the fore 

 wings are narrow at the base, but considerably 

 wider opposite the anal angle ; the costa is 

 straight for three-quarters of its length, and 

 then bends gradually towards the tip ; their 

 colour is ashy-gray tinged with pale purple, 

 and having numerous dark markings both 

 transverse and longitudinal ; these are princi- 

 pally noticeable, first, as forming a trans-- 

 verse band before the orbicular, and this band 

 is interrupted by a pale zigzag line ; and 

 secondly, occupying the space between the 

 discoidal spots, but connected with this, is a 

 cloud on the hind margin below the reniform ; 

 the usual discoidal spots are singularly dis- 

 torted and divided, each appearing as an 

 assemblage of four or five squarish black spots; 

 on the hind margin is a row of eight black 

 spots : the hind wings are pale gray, slightly 

 suffused with saffron, and also slightly clouded 

 towards the fringe, which is pale : the head is 

 adorned with two pale transverse lines before 

 the antennae ; the crown, eyes, and collar are 

 almost black ; then follows a band of almost 

 pearly whiteness; the body is silvery-gray 

 with a medio-dorsal series of small dark 

 crests. 



The head of the CATERPILLAR is narrower 

 than the second segment; it is somewhat 

 triangular ; the body is rather short and obese 

 with the segmental divisions clearly defined ; 

 the colour of the head, and also of the second 

 segment, is dull pale reddish-gray; the ground- 

 colour exhibited chiefly at the incisions of 



