76 MOTHS 



PLATE XL 

 THE GARDEN CARPET (i) 



This is another of our very commonest British 

 moths. You may find it in dozens, and even in 

 hundreds, in almost any garden, just by shaking 

 the bushes or the branches of the trees. And 

 very often you may see it resting on a wall, or 

 on a fence, or fluttering about in a lighted room 

 at night. It is fond, too, of hiding in outhouses 

 and sheds, or behind a piece of loose bark on 

 the trunk of a dead tree. In fact, there is hardly 

 any place where you may not find it, from the 

 beginning of May until the end of September, 

 and sometimes even later still. And if you 

 wanted to catch a hundred, or five hundred, or 

 a thousand Garden Carpets, you could very easily 

 do so. 



The caterpillars, of course, are quite as common 

 as the moths. They are queer little stick-like 

 creatures, and vary very much in colour, some 

 being grey, and some light green, and some 

 dark green, and some pale brown. But they 

 always have several arrow-shaped dark markings 

 upon their backs, with four or five pale blotches 

 behind them. Look for them on nasturtium 

 leaves, and also on those of cabbage and horse- 

 radish plants. 



