nUJIMING-BIRD UAWK-MOTH. 165 
wings are rust-yellow, sliglitly suffused with dusky 
before and behind. The body is nearly coniolorous 
with the upper ^vings, and the abdomen is variegated 
with tufts of black and wdiite at the sides of the 
segments, the anal tuft being black. 
The ground colour of the caterpillar is green, 
sprinkled with numerous white points, and having 
two w'hite rays along the sides. The anal horn is 
rather long and acute, perfectly straight, yellowish 
at the tip and blue at the base ; the membranous 
legs each marked with a sinning black lunule, the 
coronet of spines of a rosy tint. (PI. xii. fig. 2.) 
It feeds on verticillate or stellate plants (whence 
the specific name), and is most commonly found on 
lady’s-bedstraw and goosegrass C Galium verum and 
G. aparirwj. It sometimes enters the earth when 
about to be transformed, and at other times con- 
structs a cocoon on the surface, composed of par- 
ticles of earth, pieces of leaves, or portions of the 
stems of plants. 
This curious insect is of frequent occurrence in 
most parts of England, and is found occasionally in 
the southern and even the more northern counties 
of Scotland. It frequents gardens and cultivated 
grounds, appearing on the wing in the morning and 
afternoon, and concealing itself among the foliage 
during the heat of the day. It darts about from 
flow'er to flower with amazing rapidity, and poises 
itself, like a Humming-bird, over the blossoms, till 
it extracts their nectareous juices by means of its 
long spiral proboscis. While thus suspended, the 
