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VIII. 
NOTES ON THE HABITS OF SOME OF OUE LEPIDOPTEEOUS 
INSECTS. 
By Arthur Cottam, E.R.A.S. 
II.— The Larger Moths. 
Read at Watford , 18; th November , 1903. 
Ih my previous paper (Vol. XI, p. 222) I confined my remarks 
to our butterflies, which number only 65 or 66 species. Our 
British moths number about 2,000 species; and it is a much more 
difficult matter to give anything like a general idea of the habits, 
which vary a great deal, in so large a number of insects. 
The whole of our moths are, as I stated in my first paper, 
included under the general head of “ Heterocera,” that is, having 
variously-shaped horns. The antennae are exceedingly variable in 
form, but are never clubbed like those of the butterflies. 
The Lepidoptera are divided, by collectors at all events, into 
Macro- and Micro-lepidoptera, the large and small species; but 
this is, after all, an artificial and inexact division, many of the 
macros being smaller than numbers of the micros. 
The larger moths included in the Macro-lepidoptera are syste¬ 
matically divided into four principal groups, and it is to these 
groups that I shall confine this paper. They are:— 
1. The Sphingidae, or Hawk-moths. This group is again divided 
into three families, which appear to have but little in common. 
( a ) The Hawk-moths proper—17 species, (b) The Clearwings, so 
called because a large portion of their wings is devoid of scales— 
14 species, (c) The Foresters and Burnet moths — 9 species. 
Together 40 species. 
2. The Bombyces—110 species. 
3. The Noctuae—300 species. 
4. The Geometrae—280 species. 
I give the number of species in each group in round numbers. 
The four groups therefore include about 730 species of moths. The 
Micro-lepidoptera include about 1,300 species; many are exceed¬ 
ingly small, and among them are some of the most brilliant and 
beautiful of all our moths. 
It will save repetition if, before entering upon the peculiarities 
of the various groups, I describe the structure of a larva. 
The larvae of all lepidopterous insects have thirteen segments, of 
which the head forms the first. Segments 2, 3, and 4 each bear 
a pair of true jointed legs, corresponding to those of the perfect 
insect. There are also generally ten prolegs situated in pairs on 
segments 7, 8, 9, 10, and 13. The variations from this typical 
arrangement will be referred to where necessary as each group is 
considered. 
There is one habit amongst the larvae of some of the moths of 
