90 MOTHS 



PLATE XLVII 



THE ANGLE-SHADES (2) 



This is a very common moth indeed, but a very 

 difficult one to see. For when it is at rest it 

 always folds its yellowish-brown and olive-green 

 wings closely round its body, and looks so like 

 a shrivelled piece of dead leaf that it is very 

 hard indeed to believe that it is really a moth. 

 It is double-brooded, coming out first in May, 

 and then again in September and October. But 

 it always seems much more plentiful in the 

 autumn than in the spring, and you can gener- 

 ally find it in numbers by looking on the blossoms 

 of ivy on a warm evening. And you will notice 

 that the hairs on the "thorax," or middle part 

 of its body, are so long that they form a kind 

 of ruff all round its neck. 



The caterpillar of the Angle-shades is either 

 grass-green in colour or light brown, powdered 

 thickly with tiny white dots, and with a pale 

 white line running down the middle of its back. 

 It feeds on nettle, chickweed, primrose, mullein, 

 and other low plants, and when it is fully grown 

 makes a light cocoon just beneath the surface 

 of the ground, in which it turns to a shiny reddish- 

 brown chrysalis. 



