LEPIDOPTERA. 99 



often been mistaken for a humming-bird, whose flight it closely resembles, while 

 travellers familiar with the latter mistake the long proboscis from which the moth 

 derives its generic name for the slender bill of the humming-bird. The fore- 

 wings are dark black-brown, and the hind-wings pale copper-red. The sides of 

 the abdomen are blotched with white, its extremity being thickly tufted. The 

 larva is green or pinkish brown, with a pale stripe along the sides ; and feeds on 

 the lady's bed-straw. The autumn brood of larvae hibernate in the pupa state, the 

 perfect insects emerging in the spring. 



The Prominents, — Family Notodontid.e. 



These moths — which are of moderate size, with stout, hairy bodies, long, ample 

 wings, sometimes with a tooth-like tuft of scales on the inner margin — are very 

 similar in general appearance to members of the family of owl-moths {Noctuidce). 

 The antennae are usually pectinate in the male, and simple in the female, but in some 

 genera comb-like in both sexes. The larvae, which in many species assume strange 

 abnormal shapes and attitudes, are smooth and shiny, and without the last pair of 

 claspers. In some cases the terminal segment bears a pair of tail-like processes, 

 which can be raised or depressed, spread widely apart, or closed at pleasure. When 

 full-fed, the larva forms a tough cocoon, covered with chips of wood or other debris, 

 in which it turns to a pupa. The perfect insects fly at night, and may sometimes 

 be found during the day resting on the trunks of trees, palings, or other suitably 

 coloured objects. A common British representative is the buff- tip (Phalera buceph- 

 ala), although it is more often met with in the larval state than adult. Yellow- 

 and-black -spotted, the young larvae may be found together, feeding gregariously 

 upon elms and other trees. The silver-grey wings, streaked and barred with rich 

 browns, their tips painted with a patch of pale yellow, appear when closed, as the 

 moth rests on the grey bark of a tree, exactly like a short grey stick with the 

 top bevelled off on either side, and partially decayed. The puss-moth (Bicranura 

 vinula), is another common British species often found on poplar trees in the larval 

 state, though the perfect insect is seldom met with. The latter has white fore- 

 wings, tinged and marked with grey ; the thorax being spotted with black. The 

 compressed, globular, dull red egg is laid in the summer months on the leaves of 

 the poplar or sallow, and the tiny caterpillars are at first quite black, but become 

 greener as they grow older. When full grown, they assume, at rest, the character- 

 istic position represented in the accompanying illustration, whence they derive 

 their name of puss-moths, from some fancied resemblance to a cat. The bifurcate 

 tail emits thin red filaments from the apex of each branch when the larva is 

 irritated ; the colour being then bright green, with a red-brown or chocolate-pink 

 patch margined with white behind the head, narrowed and then broadened at the 

 sixth segment, and narrowing again to the tail. The cocoon is very tough, formed 

 in some crevice of the bark gnawed into a convenient cup by the strong jaws of 

 the larva. On the top are glued the chips thus obtained, and, with bits of lichen 

 added, it almost defies detection amongst the surrounding knobs and rounded bits 

 of bark. The species is common throughout Europe and Asia. The caterpillar of 

 the lobster-moth (Stauropus fagi) resembles nothing to be found in nature save 



