70 MOTHS 



PLATE XXXVI 

 THE LARGE EMERALD (2) 



The " emeralds " are pale green moths with very 

 delicate wings, and the Large Emerald is the 

 finest and most beautiful of them all. It is almost 

 as large as the " swallow-tail moth," and when it 

 first comes out of the chrysalis its wings are 

 of the most lovely green colour, with three wavy 

 white lines across the front pair, and a scalloped 

 white line and a row of white dots across the 

 hinder ones. But after two or three days it 

 begins to fade ; and if you were to put it away 

 in a collection you would most likely find after 

 a few months that it was nearly white. 



The Large Emerald is not a very common 

 moth, but you may sometimes find it by shaking 

 bushes and the branches of trees in June and 

 July. The caterpillar feeds on the leaves of birch 

 and elm, and is green in colour, with a yellow 

 line along each side, and six pairs of little reddish 

 bumps which look like tiny buds. About the end 

 of May it forms a kind of cocoon by spinning 

 together two or three leaves of its food-plant, 

 and turns into a brownish-green chrysalis, with 

 two rows of reddish spots on its back. 



