LEPJD OP TER A. 
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often been mistaken for a humming-bird, whose flight it closely resembles, while 
travellers familiar with the latter mistake the long proboscis from which the moth 
derives its generic name for the slender bill of the humming-bird. The fore¬ 
wings are dark black-brown, and the hind-wings pale copper-red. The sides of 
the abdomen are blotched with white, its extremity being thickly tufted. The 
larva is green or pinkish brown, with a pale stripe along the sides; and feeds on 
the lady’s bed-straw. The autumn brood of larvae hibernate in the pupa state, the 
perfect insects emerging in the spring. 
The Prominents,— Family NfJTODOXTIDyE. 
These moths—which are of moderate size, with stout, hairy bodies, long, ample 
wings, sometimes with a tooth-like tuft of scales on the inner margin—are very 
similar in general appearance to members of the family of owl-moths (Noctuidce). 
The antennae are usually pectinate in the male, and simple in the female, but in some 
genera comb-like in both sexes. The larvae, which in many species assume strange 
abnormal shapes and attitudes, are smooth and shiny, and without the last pair of 
claspers. In some cases the terminal segment bears a pair of tail-like processes, 
which can be raised or depressed, spread widely apart, or closed at pleasure. When 
full-fed, the larva forms a tough cocoon, covered with chips of wood or other debris, 
in which it turns to a pupa. The perfect insects fly at night, and may sometimes 
be found during the day resting on the trunks of trees, palings, or other suitably 
coloured objects. A common British representative is the buff-tip (Phalera buceph- 
ala), although it is more often met with in the larval state than adult. Yellow- 
and-black-spotted, the young larvae may be found together, feeding gregariously 
upon elms and other trees. The silver-grey wings, streaked and barred with rich 
browns, their tips painted with a patch of pale }mllow, appear when closed, as the 
moth rests on the grey bark of a tree, exactly like a short grey stick with the 
top bevelled off on either side, and partially decayed. The puss-moth (Bicranura 
vinula), is another common British species often found on poplar trees in the larval 
state, though the perfect insect is seldom met with. The latter has white fore¬ 
wings, tinged and marked with grey; the thorax being spotted with black. The 
compressed, globular, dull red egg is laid in the summer months on the leaves of 
the poplar or sallow, and the tiny caterpillars are at first quite black, but become 
greener as they grow older. When full grown, they assume, at rest, the character¬ 
istic position represented in the accompanying illustration, whence they derive 
their name of puss-moths, from some fancied resemblance to a cat. The bifurcate 
tail emits thin red filaments from the apex of each branch when the larva is 
irritated; the colour being then bright green, with a red-brown or chocolate-pink 
patch margined with white behind the head, narrowed and then broadened at the 
sixth segment, and narrowing again to the tail. The cocoon is very tough, formed 
in some crevice of the bark gnawed into a convenient cup by the strong jaws of 
the larva. On the top are glued the chips thus obtained, and, with bits of lichen 
added, it almost defies detection amongst the surrounding knobs and rounded bits 
of bark. The species is common throughout Europe and Asia. The caterpillar of 
the lobster-moth ( Stauropus fagi ) resembles nothing to be found in nature save 
