47 



THE CLOVER BHASTERI A— Brasteria erechtea. 



This is a very common clover insect, very generally distributed, but never, as far as 

 we know, yet reported anywhere as doing much injury to the crop. The moth is well 



represented in fig. 19. The moth, when its wings are 

 expanded, will measure from an inch and a quarter to 

 an inch and a half across. The fore wings are greyish- 

 brown, with bands and dots of dark brown — one band 

 crossing the wing about an eighth of an inch from the 

 base ; a second, which does not always extend entirely 

 across, is placed midway between the first and the outer 

 Fig. 19. margin. There is a dull patch of brown near the front 



edge of the wing, between the first and second bands, and two or three prominent black 

 dots similarly situated between the second band and the apex ; the outer edge is also 

 widely margined with brown. 



The inner portion of the hind wings is of a similar colour to the front pair, the outer 

 half being crossed by two darker bands irregular in outline, the space between them 

 paler, as also is the space between the outside band and the hind margin. The markings 

 on both wings vary much in intensity, being sometimes almost black, in other instances 

 very pale. The under surfaces of both wings are much paler than the upper, with the 

 markings of the upper side partially, but indistinctly, produced. 



This insect passes the winter in the chrysalis state, and is among the earliest on the 

 wing in sj^ring ; it is also found up to a late period in the autumn. It frequents fields, 

 meadows, and other open grassy spots. Its flight is sudden, and after a short but rapid 

 course it as suddenly alights. 



It is in the caterpillar state that this insect feeds on clover. When full grown it 

 measures an inch and a quarter or more. It has a medium-sized head of a reddish-brown 

 colour, with darker longitudinal lines. The body is reddish-brown above, with many 

 longitudinal lines, and stripes of a darker shade. There is a double whitish line down 

 the back, with a stripe of the darker shade of brown on each side, and lower down close 

 to the spiraxles is another stripe of the same dark hue, while between these two are faint 

 longitudinal lines. The spaces between the segments, from the fifth to the eighth inclu- 

 sive, are nearly black above, a feature only seen, however, when the larva is coiled up, a 

 position it readily assumes when disturbed. The under surface is a little darker than 

 the upper, with many longitudinal lines of a still deeper shade, and a central stripe of 

 blackish green from the sixth to the ninth segments. Having but three pairs of pro-legs, 

 it alternately arches and extends its body in progression. 



THE CLOUDED SULPHUR BUTTERFLY— Co^ias philodice. 



The common Yellow, or Clouded Sulphur Butterfly, is found almost everywhere in 

 its season — in fields and on roadways, often congregating in groups on the borders of 

 -streams and muddy pools, where they seem to enjoy settling on the cool moist ground. 



Fig. 20. Fig. 21. 



As the summer progresses, they are usually very abundant in clover fields. Figure 20 

 represents the male of this butterfly ; fig. 21, the female — it will be seen that the sexes 



