452 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



joint long, slender, and naked ; the antennae 

 ate simple : the fore wings are very straight 

 in the costa, but decidedly curved, indeed 

 slightly hooked, and sharply pointed at the 

 tip ; their colour is metallic golden-green, 

 with a brown blotch at the base, another and 

 lai-ger brown blotch at the middle of the costal 

 margin, and a third opposite this on the inner 

 margin; in some of my specimens the costal 

 and inner-marginal blotches unite in forming 

 a median band ; the hind margin itself is occu- 

 pied by a semi-metallic band much less bright 

 than the other metallic portions of the wings : 

 the hind wings, head, thorax, and body are 

 gray-brown. 



The CATERPILLAR rests in a bent posture on 

 the leaves or stems of its food-plant, the 

 anterior extremity being held up and not 

 touching the food-plant, to which the attach- 

 ment is by the claspers only ; these are six in 

 number, four ventral and two anal ; the head 

 is small and shining, the face rather flat ; the 

 body is attenuated at the anterior extremity, 

 and stretched out leech-like; it gradually in- 

 creases in size to the twelfth segment, which 

 is swollen and rather humped ; the colour of 

 the head and 'body is apple-green without 

 stripes, but having a dorsal ornamentation on 

 each segment consisting of six white marks ; 

 the two of these nearest the middle are V-- 

 shaped, the angles of the V's pointing back- 

 wards ; the others, two on each side, are linear 

 and slightly oblique ; on the second, third, 

 and thirteenth segments the V's are wanting, 

 the lines only being present ; there is a very 

 slender lateral stripe also white, and imme- 

 diately below this are the spiracles, visible 

 only from their black circumscription; beneath 

 the spiracles is a series of white dots. It feeds 

 on the white dead-nettle (Lamium album), 

 burdock (Arctium Lappa), stinging-nettle, 

 (Urtica dioiai), and a number of other low 

 plants, and is full-fed in June, when it spins a 

 whitish cocoon among the leaves of its food- 

 plant, and therein changes to a black CHRYSALIS 

 with a pointed horn at its anal extremity. 



The MOTH appears on the wing twice in 

 the year, in June and August, and is of fre- 

 quent occurrence in our English, Scotch, and 



Irish counties. (The scientific name is Plusia, 

 chrysitis.) 



699. The Gold Spangle (Plusia bractea). 



G99. THE GOLD SPANGLE. The palpi are 

 curved upwards, the second joint being long 

 and slender and standing quite upright ; the 

 antenna? are simple : the fore wings are nearly 

 straight on the costa, and scarcely bent at the 

 tip ; their colour is rich umber-brown below 

 the median blotch, which is of a most brilliant 

 metallic gold-colour; the shape of this blotch 

 will be best seen by a reference to the figure : 

 the hind wings are gray-brown towards the 

 margin and paler at the base, and the wing- 

 rays are dai'ker in this pale portion : the 

 palpi and front of the thorax are reddish- 

 brown ; the crown of the head and disk of 

 the thorax are umber-brown; the body is pale 

 gray, brown towards the base, red-brown to- 

 wards the tip ; the back is crested, the crest 

 on the fourth segment being the most con- 

 spicuous and very dark brown. 



The CATERPILLAR has a small flat and por- 

 'rected head, much narrower than the second 

 segment; the body has the segmental divisions 

 very clearly marked ; the anterior ones are 

 rather small, but those which follow are 

 stouter, and the posterior ones, from the ninth 

 to the twelfth, are very stout and tiimid ; the 

 entire surface of the body is covered with fine 

 scattered hairs ; there are but six claspers, two 

 each on the ninth, tenth, and thirteenth seg- 

 ments : the head is pale green, with a narrow 

 brown line on each side : the body is apple- 

 gi'een, with a narrow medio-dorsal white line; 

 and a narrow lateral white line on each side. 

 It feeds on the hemp-agrimony (Eupatorium 

 cannabinum) and, spinning a rather loose 

 cocoon near the roots of the plant, therein 



