MOTHS AND THEIR CATERPILLARS. 201 



distinguished by beautifully pectinated antenna?, 

 while those of the females are only in the form of 

 two minute hairs. 



The Shark-moths, so named from their grayish 

 tone, and the shape of their wings like the sharp fin 

 of a shark, have very handsome Caterpillars, which 

 should be looked for on the Verbascum, where their 

 delicate blue-green colour, varied with yellow and 

 black spots renders them conspicuous, and enables the 

 collector to recognize them at once from other kinds. 



The Caterpillars of the JPlusia family must not 

 be omitted — not for their own beauty, for few 

 of them are remarkable, but for that of the 

 Moths, which, when they first come forth from the 

 chrysalis with their fine markings and patches of 

 gold, bright as real metal, are most strikingly beau- 

 tiful objects, as some of their popular names imply. 

 There is, for instance, " The Beautiful Golden Y," 

 the form of that letter appearing in gold on the an- 

 terior wings, "The Burnished Brass," "The 

 Scarce Burnished Brass," "The Gold Spangle," 

 and others. 



Then, making another great skip, we come to 

 some other large and beautiful species, the Morino 

 Maura, for instance, or Old Lady, and the magnifi- 

 cent genus Catocala, or B.ed Underwings. 



