offecling the Turnijj-Croj)!}, 
107 
jniddlo, and aro clliatod outside at tlio base :* all the feet are fivc- 
jointed and spiny bcuKsath, terminating in minute claws with a 
tooth on tlie inside, and I'urnished with little pulvilli : the tips of 
the shanks and of all the tarsi are whitish. The female diilers 
from the male in having simple and not pectinated horns, and the 
underwings are dark-brown, instead of white : length | of an 
inch, expanse not quite 1^. 
This moth is exceedingly abundant all over Europe, and it is 
even a common insect at the Cape of Good Hope. There are 
two broods of it annually in France, and it is found plentifully in 
England in June, mostly towards the end of the month, in fields 
and gardens, on weedy banks, &c., about which it flies at the 
close of day. The eggs laid by the female produce larva?, which 
are said to live upon the groundsel ; but that is doubtful, for a 
friend and myself have bred this moth from the caterpillars which 
w ere found at the roots of turnips ; it is possible they feed upon 
both. However this may be, it is a most destructive animal to 
crops of this valuable plant, and sometimes in company with the 
following species destroys immense numbers at every stage of 
their growth. Towards the end of last August in Surrey they 
attacked, tlie margins of a field of swedes under a hedge full of 
elm-trees ; some of the plants were observed to be dying, and on 
being pulled up, the crown was found separated from the root, as 
exhibited at fig. 8, and on searching there, one of the caterpillars 
was discovered ; but in a neighbouring enclosure as many as four 
were detected at one root, and they had spread themselves into 
the middle of the field. There can be no doubt that this, like 
the other species, lives through the winter ; for a friend in 
Suffolk supplied me with a considerable number of the cater- 
pillars on the 'iOtli of November, which were taken from the 
roots of potatoes in one of his fields. 
This caterpillar, fig. 7, is of a dull lilac-colour, with a broad 
space down the back more ochreous and lighter, the margins 
being bounded by an indistinct but darker line, and there is a 
double fuscous line down the centre; the underside is pale dull 
whitish-green; the head is brown; the jaws, eyes, two oblique 
lines at the base, and a dot between them, black, as are the nine 
spiracles also ; the first thoracic segment is rather horny, and 
brown above, variegated with darker spots ; the other segments 
have four little tubercles on the back of each, and several on the 
sides, all of them producing a short hair : the sis pectoral legs 
are ochraceous, the claws black, the eight abdominal and two anal 
feet are brown at their extremities ; they are full 1 ^ inch long, 
and as thick as a small goose-quill. This is not so cylindrical 
' Curtis s Biit. Ent., pi. 1G5, fig. 8t. 
