THE V-MOTH. 
425 
many plants, but especially on spinach, lettuce, and asparagus, and is not very common. Its 
color is rich green ; a double row of white spots runs along the back, the rows being divided 
by a yellow line, then a row of white spots arranged in groups, and lastly a line of scarlet. 
The moth itself, although of pleasing tints, is not nearly so handsome as the caterpillar. The 
general color is brown, in some individuals marked with yellow and in others with chestnut. 
The curiously shaped marks upon the wings are brown-black. The hinder wings are gray, 
and the fringe is yellow. 
When this moth is alarmed it has a habit of falling to the ground, with the upper wings 
drawn closely round the body and the antennae and legs folded. In this attitude it looks more 
like a stray piece of stick than a moth, and would escape any one who was not searching care- 
fully for it and was not acquainted with its habits. 
The insect in the illustration is the Clieden Nonpareil, a fine and rare example of the 
Underwing-moths, so called because the hinder pair of wings are mostly of some bright color, 
while the upper pair are of comparatively sober tints. All these insects have a habit of settling 
on trunks of trees, or objects of similar dark hues, and drawing their upper wings so closely over 
each other as to conceal the brilliantly colored lower wings entirely beneath their shelter. 
When so seated, or rather suspended, as they al ways hang in a vertical attitude, it is almost 
impossible to discover them, even though they be marked down to the very tree on which they 
CLIFDEN NONPAREIL . — Catocala fraxina. (Natural size.) 
alight. They require some little care on the part of the pursuer ; for although they depend 
much on their dull coloring for concealment, they are very alert on the wing, and the moment 
that they take alarm they speed away with wonderful alacrity. 
The Swallow-tailed Moth is a well-known European species, very common in woods, 
and being mostly found among the underwood, whence it may be dislodged by beating the 
branches. The caterpillar feeds on many shrubs, but prefers the willow, the lime, and elder 
trees, the elder being its chief favorite. The cocoon is made of withered leaves. 
The Peppered Moth derives its name from the color of the wings, which are white, 
covered with little black dots, that look as if they had been shaken out of a pepper-castor. 
The stripes on the fore wings are black. 
The V -moth, another of a very common species of this family, is so called on account of 
the dark brown mark upon the fore wings, which much resembles the letter after which it is 
named. 
There are several other families of moths, many of which contain numerous species, but 
our space does not allow to treat them all. Some of them are very small and apparently 
Vol. III. — 54. 
