THE WILLOW BEAUTY 69 



PLATE XXXVI 



THE WILLOW BEAUTY (1) 



I am sorry to say that I cannot tell you why 

 this moth is called the "Willow Beauty." For, 

 in the first place, it is not a very beautiful insect. 

 Both its front and hinder wings are greyish- 

 brown all over, with a few wavy black lines 

 running across them, and one pale zigzag streak 

 near the outer margin. Certainly, one would 

 hardly call it a "beauty." And then, in the 

 second place, it has nothing to do with willow 

 trees ; for its grey, twig-like caterpillar feeds on 

 the leaves of rose-bushes, and plum trees, and pear 

 trees, and birch trees, and sometimes on those of 

 lilac and elder, but never on the leaves of willows. 



This moth is a very common one indeed in 

 all parts of the country, and from the middle 

 of June until the beginning of August you may 

 see it in numbers, resting with outspread wings 

 on fences and tree-trunks during the day, and 

 fluttering round gas-lamps in the evening. 



There is another moth which is very like the 

 "willow beauty," but is nearly twice as big, and 

 is rather lighter in colour. This is called the 

 "great oak beauty," and you may sometimes see 

 it resting on the trunks of oak trees in June. 



