82 MOTHS 



PLATE XLIV 

 THE FIGURE-OF-EIGHT (i) 



You have only to look at this moth to see why 

 its name was given to it, for on each of its front 

 wings it has two large white spots with two small 

 dark spots inside them, one above the other; so 

 that they look very much like the figure 8. But 

 the inner 8 is always a much neater one than the 

 outer, which has a kind of blurred appearance, 

 just as if a drop of water had fallen upon it and 

 made the colours run. 



This moth is quite a common one in most 

 parts of the country, and appears on the wing 

 in September. It only flies by night, so that one 

 does not often see it ; but it will sometimes fly 

 into a well-lighted room on a dark, warm evening 

 if the window is left open. You can find the 

 caterpillar, however, without any difficulty at all. 

 All that you have to do is to hunt for it on 

 hawthorn or blackthorn bushes during May or 

 the early part of June, and there you are almost 

 sure to see it — a smoky green creature thinly 

 covered with black hairs, and with a yellow stripe 

 running down its back, and another along each 

 side of its body. A little later on it spins a neat 

 little cocoon, made partly of silk and partly of 

 bits of bark and leaf, which it fastens underneath 

 a twig of its food-plant. And in this it changes 

 into a chrysalis. 



