GrEOMETRIDiE. 
4 
takes place in the soil without a cocoon and lasts 13 days. The moth is 
dry grass colour 55 with a median purplish suffusion ; it sits with 
its wings rolled round it, and very closely resembles a piece of maize 
stem cut from a node, with a piece of dry leaf round it; the head 
looks like the dry bluntly-cut node and the whole resemblance is 
singularly perfect and striking. 
Geometries. 
Vein 5 nearer 6 than 4 in forewing. Hindwing vein 8 connected with 
7 at the base or if not , vein 5 fully developed ; vein 
1 c. absent. Proboscis present. 
There is a general family 
resemblance among our 
common Geometers but the 
venation affords the sole 
accurate characters. They 
are frenulate moths with 
the proboscis developed, 
with the venation as above, 
and the tarsi usually long 
and naked. They are of 
moderate to large size with 
cryptic colouring m nearly all cases. 
The life-history of but few has been worked out in this country; 
the known larvae are loopers, with two pairs of prolegs, the body nearly 
Fig. 323 -Biston suppressaria. 
(I. M. N.) 
Fig. 324— Biston suppressaria. 
(I. M. N.) 
naked and slender. As a rule a true looper is at once recognisable from 
it attitude and general form (Plate XLI, fig. 3); the attitude with the 
