THE PINE BEAUTY 87 



PLATE XLVI 

 THE PINE BEAUTY (1) 



This is a really lovely moth, which always comes 

 out in the early spring. If you want to find it, 

 you should hunt for it on the trunks of pine 

 trees, about three or four feet from the ground. 

 But you will have to look for it very carefully 

 indeed, for it is one of the most difficult of all 

 moths to see. The reason is that when its wings 

 are folded it looks exactly like a little bit of 

 the tree trunk from which the outer bark has 

 been knocked off; so that you might easily look 

 straight at it from only two or three feet away 

 and yet never notice it. But after dark it is 

 very fond of feasting upon the sweet juices of 

 sallow catkins, or "palms," as so many people 

 call them. And if you were to shake one of 

 these bushes over an open umbrella on a warm 

 evening about the beginning of April, you would 

 very likely find a Pine Beauty lying inside it 

 with its wings folded, and pretending to be dead. 



The caterpillar of this moth is either pale brown, 

 or bright green, or dark green in colour, with 

 five white stripes running along its body, one 

 on the back, and two on each side. It feeds on 

 the leaves of the Scotch fir in June and July. 



