CLIFDEN NONPAREIL. Catocala frdxinus. 

 SWORD-GRASS MOTH. Calocampa exoleta. (And larva.) PEACH-BLOSSOM MOTH. Thyatira batis. 



more like a stray piece of stick than a moth, and -would escape any one who was not 

 searching carefully for it and was acquainted with its habits. 



The largest insect in the illustration is the CLIFDEN NONPAKEIL, a fine and rare 

 example of the Underwing-moths, so called because the hinder pair of wings are mostly of 

 some bright colour while the upper pair are of comparatively sober tints. All these 

 insects have a habit of settling on trunks of trees, or objects of similar dark hues, and 

 drawing their upper wings so closely over each other as to conceal the brilliantly coloured 

 lower wings entirely beneath their shelter. When so seated, or rather suspended, as they 

 always hang in a vertical attitude, it is almost impossible to discover them, even though 

 they be marked down to the very tree on which they alight. They require some little 

 care on the part of the pursuer ; for although they depend much on their dull colouring 

 for concealment, they are very alert on the wing, and the moment that they take alarm 

 they speed away with wonderful alacrity. 



The caterpillar of the Clifden Nonpareil is very scarce in this country, and when 

 found is almost invariably in one of the southern counties. Upon the Continent, however, 

 it is tolerably plentiful. It feeds on various trees, such as the poplar, oak, elm, and ash, 

 the last mentioned seeming to be its favourite. Its general colour is ashen yellow, with 

 a multitude of minute black spots. Nearly at the end of the body there is a bluish 

 black protuberance with a few yellow spots, and on tho, next segment there is an oblique 

 black line. Before it changes into the pupal form, it i/iakes a loose silken cocoon among 

 leaves. This moth, although the largest British example of the genus, is not the most 

 brilliantly coloured. The general -colour of the upper wings is grey, with festoon-like 



