io6 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



i June 



Turning to the moths, several of the larvae of the noctuina con- 

 struct domiciles for themselves by fastening leaves together with silken 

 threads. Thus, for instance the bluish-grey caterpillar of Cymatophora 

 duplaris, which may be beaten out of united birch leaves in the later 

 summer months, and may be found full fed in early autumn. Others 

 of the genus also join birch leaves leaves, as the dull greenish or 

 whitish C< flavicornis with black dots along the sides, which should be 

 sought after about midsummer, and the local yellowish-white C. 

 fluctuosa, which occurs sparingly in the autumn. 



The grey, minutely-dotted C. diluta and the variable C. ridens unite 

 oak leaves in the summer. Some of the latter larvae are dark bluish- 

 grey, others are dark blue with longitudinal black lines and others 

 again are yellow with green lines. 



The pale yellowish-green larva of Cymatophora or, feeds between 

 united poplar leaves in July and August, and a month later the local 

 very pale yellowish-green larva of the Figure-of-8o moth ( C. ocularis ) 

 may be beaten from aspen. 



The bright coloured flattened larvae of Tethea subtusa and retusa 

 may be beaten from united poplar leaves in the spring — the last named 

 should also be sought for on sallows. Both are green, shining, and 

 smooth, but retusa has a black head, while subtusa has a whitish-green 

 one, and is more of a yellowish-green in the colour of its body than 

 retusa, and it also has the spiracular line pale yellowish, whilst in retusa 

 this is whitish. 



Other leaf-uniting larvae among the noctuina are the rare, brownish 

 black caterpillar of Dicycla Oo, feeding iu its localities on oak in May 

 and June, the cannibalistic Cosmia trapezina found abundantly on oak 

 or birch, inside bundles of united leaves, the caterpillars of Cosmia diffinis 

 and affinis both of which feed on elm in May. They are both green, 

 affinis rather bluish, with a palegreen head, and narrow white line along 

 the spiracles ; diffinis has a pale yellow spiracular line. Of the two, 

 affinis is by far the commoner. The rare Pyralina also feeds between 

 united leaves of plum and pear in April and May. 



The looper larvae which live in united leaves when full grown are 

 not numerous, merely such species as the destructive caterpillars of 

 the winter-moth Cheimatobia brumata, which inhabit folded leaves on 

 almost every kind of tree, and the allied species C. boreata, which lives 

 inside folded birch leaves in the North of England, and may be ob- 



