102 
Obseivations on the vartoxs Insects 
another pair of spurs also a little removetl from tliein ; the feet 
are fivc-johitccl, spotted v.itli ochre, terminated by minute claws, 
having- a tooth on the inside, and little lobes called pulvilli : length 
£ of an inch ; wings expanding \ and upwards. 
This moth is abundant in May and June; it is seen Hying in 
the evening, and sitting in the day-lime, with its wings closed, on 
the trunks of trees, in hedges, and on the sides of clods in fields 
and gardens. Last year I bred many specimens towards the end 
of May, during the whole of June, and in the two first weeks of 
July. After having paired, the female lays her eggs u})(m the 
leaves of cabbages and odier vegetables; these shortly hatch, and 
immediately begin feeding; they are, I believe, always green in 
their early stages ; but when they are full-grown, being as large as a 
goose-quill and \\ inch long or upwards, they vary exceedingly in 
colour, some being blackish above, and variegated with flesh- 
colour (fig. '2), whilst others are green, slightly tinged with black 
above, and the spiracles white (fig. 3) ; possibly these difi'erences 
may be indications of the sexes ; both have oblique lines on every 
segment down the back : the head is more or less ochreous and 
horny, furnished with short antenna; and jaws ; the first thoracic 
segment is black aljove, and they have six pectoral, eight abdo- 
minal, and two anal feet. I know of no larva which is a more 
general feeder than this ; some caterpillars will eat only of one 
}>lant, others of those which belong to the same natural family 
alone; but this can accommodate its taste as local circumstances 
may require to an extent which is surprising, making a meal 
indifferently of the saccharine maize or the acrid tobacco : the 
cabb;ige, hov/ever, is the favourite, or rather the most usual, food 
of these animals, and I saw them very abundant upon that vege- 
table in company with the caterpillars of Fontia AV/^n',* in July, 
August, and September of last year. At the same period they 
were devouring the turnip-leaves, and were great enemies to 
lettuces and rape ; they were likewise particularly fond of the 
Indian corn, living amongst the m.ale flowers, and also in the brush 
of filaments which crowns the female spikes, frequently eating it 
smooth off. I was surprised to find great numbers feeding upon 
the leaves of the scarlet geraniums in a large garden-bed, the 
beauty of the fine foliage being impaired by the multitude of 
largo holes they had eaten in the leaves; and in October they 
attacked the leaves of some red currant bushes : at the same time 
I found them feeding freely in my breeding-cage upon the poplar, 
njtwillistanding a cabbage-leaf was there also. Although they 
sccMn to refuse none of the productions of the field or garden, 
it is those of the latter which suffer most from their assaults. 
Royal Agnc, Jouni., vol. iii. p. 312. 
