PEACH-BLOSSOM MOTH. 473 



such profusion as to be absolutely annoying, crowding to the 

 sugar in multitudes, and quite distracting the eye of the col- 

 lector from the Moths which he wishes to take. With a little 

 practice, however, the task of selection becomes a tolerably easy 

 one, and there are few nights when valuable additions may not 

 be made to the cabinet. "When the collector has made the 

 round of his sugar rags often enough, he unpins them, and 

 puts them back into the tin box ready to serve for another 

 occasion. This plan is far less cumbrous than the old method 

 of carrying a jar of sugar and beer and a brush wherewith to 

 spread the compound on the trees. 



Most of the pupae of the Noctuas undergo their changes 

 beneath the sui-face of the ground, and the chrysalids that are 

 found by the collector when ' digging for pupae ' generally 

 belong to this group of insects. 



Our first example of the Noctuas is the pretty Peach- 

 Blossom Moth {Thyatira batis), which is represented on 

 Woodcut LIII. Fig. 3. 



This very pretty Moth has received its popular name in 

 consequence of the colouring of the wings. The upper pair 

 are olive-brown, decorated with four large and conspicuous 

 spots, the largest being at the base of the wing, and one 

 smaller spot on the inner margin. These spots are lovely 

 pink in the middle, surrounded with white, and each of them 

 really does bear some resemblance to the petal of a peach- 

 blossom. A few bars of rose-coloui* cross the brown thorax. The 

 body is brown, and has a small crest on the back of the second, 

 third, and fourth segments. The beautiful pink colour of the 

 spots is very liable to fade, unless the insect be very carefully 

 kept in the dark. Several of my specimens have almost lost 

 their lovely pink in consequence of being kept in a badly 

 constructed cabinet. The Moth is tolerably common. 



The larva of this insect is a very odd-looking creature, 

 as may be seen by reference to Fig. a on the same Woodcut. 

 Its colour is warm chestnut-brown mottled with grey, and tlie 

 surface has a velvety aspect. One peculiarity in this cater- 

 pillar is that it seems to make no use either of its true legs or 

 of the claspers at the end of its body, but clings to its food 

 plant by means of the claspers of the middle of the body. 



