484 INSECTS AT HOME. 



If the reader -will refer to Woodcut XLVIII. on page 449.. 

 and Fig. 1, he will see a portrait of the •well-known Heuald 

 JNIoTir (Gonopteryx libatrix), our only British representative of 

 tlie family GonopteridjB. 



Even were not the colour of this insect so conspicuous, it 

 could at once be identified by the shape of its upper wings, 

 the hinder margins of which are deeply cut and scalloped, very 

 much like those of the Comma Butterfly, which has been de- 

 scribed on page 397. The colour of the upper wings is soft 

 ' brown-grey, with a downy surface, and slightly powdered with 

 rust-red. On the middle of the wing is a broad dash of bright 

 rust-red reaching as far as the base, and having a tiny, but 

 conspicuous sj^ot of pure white in its middle. Parallel with 

 the hind margin a whitish-grey line runs across the wing and 

 has a narrow, pale brown streak accompanying it. The front 

 of the thorax is furnished with a ruff of long, soft down, of 

 the same rust-red as that of the wing. The rest of the body 

 and the lower wings are greyish-brown. The caterpillar, which 

 is shown at Fig. a, is green, with a narrow grey streak along 

 the sides. It feeds on the Sallow, and when full-fed spins a 

 cocoon within two or three of the leaves, which it draws together 

 with silk. 



The popular name of Herald is given to this Moth because 

 it appears at the end of autumn, and is supposed to be the 

 herald of the coming winter. Though feeding in the open air, 

 it has a singidar predilection for the habitations of man, and 

 contrives to make its way into stables, outhouses, and even into 

 houses that are inhabited. It is one of the commonest of the 

 many window Moths, and often causes great consternation 

 among thrifty but ignorant housewives, who think that it has 

 come for the purpose of eating their woollen clothes, their furs, 

 and their feathers, and that, as it is so much larger than the 

 common Clothes Moth, it will eat so much the more. The 

 name of Gonoptera, or Angle-winged, refers to the bold 

 scalloping of the upper wings. 



Mr. Newman remarks that these Moths often make up their 

 minds to hibernate almost immediately after they have passed 

 from the pupal shell, and that in that case, when they have 

 settled in a house, they remain in the same spot until the fol- 

 lowing spring, jDassing the whole of the time in a stite of 

 torpidity. 



