68 MOTHS 



PLATE XXXV 

 THE PEPPER AND SALT MOTH (3) 



No doubt you will think that this is rather an 

 odd name to give to a moth, but it is a very 

 suitable one, for the wings of this insect really 

 do look very much as if they had been first 

 covered with salt, and then sprinkled thickly 

 with black pepper. But it varies a good deal 

 in its markings, for sometimes the wings look 

 as if they were nearly all salt, and sometimes they 

 look as if they were nearly all pepper. And if 

 the moth is caught in the north of England or 

 in Scotland, strange to say, it is nearly always 

 much darker than when it is caught in the south. 



The caterpillar, too, varies almost as much in 

 colour as the moth. Sometimes it is reddish- 

 brown ; sometimes it is greenish-brown ; some- 

 times it is yellowish-brown. But it always looks 

 very much like a piece of stick ; and it always 

 has eight raised reddish spots on its back, which 

 look just like buds before they begin to burst 

 into leaf. You may find it in August, feeding 

 on the leaves of lime, birch, and oak trees. In 

 September it buries itself in the ground, and 

 changes to a rather fat brown chrysalis, out of 

 which the moth appears in the following May. 



