208 GEOMETRID.E. 



of time. This, together with their obscure colours, 

 and the warts which their bodies exhibit, renders 

 it often quite difficult to distinguish them from 

 twigs of the trees on which they feed. They feed 

 on the leaves of various trees and plants, and have 

 the instinct, when alarmed, of dropping down from 

 the leaves, and suspending themselves by a thread, 

 which enables them to remount when the danger 

 is past. The chrysalides are either naked and sus- 

 pended by the tail, or enclosed in a very slender 

 cocoon, which is rarely subterraneous, and oft-times 

 placed amongst dry leaves, &c." * 



We have numerous species in Britain, many of 

 them very agreeably adorned. The foreign species 

 are also very numerous, but none of them attain a 

 large size. 



* Westwood's Modern Class, of Insects, vol. iL p. 397. 



