LAPPET MOTH—BRIMSTONE MOTH—ITS CATERPILLAR—CURRANT MOTH—CLEAR-WINGS—WHITE-PLUME MOTH—TWENTY-PLUME MOTH—ADELA—AN INSECT CINDERELLA—NAMING INSECTS—THE ATALANTA—AN INSECT CRIPPLE—PEACOCK BUTTERFLY—BLUE AND OTHER BUTTERFLIES.
LAPPET MOTH.
The accompanying cut is a good representation of a very singular creature called the “Lappet Moth”. As may be seen by the engraving, when it is settled quietly upon a leaf with folded wings, it bears a closer resemblance to a bundle of withered leaves than to any living creature. In this strange form lies its chief safety, for there are few eyes sufficiently sharp to detect an insect while hiding its character under so strange a mask.
There are several other examples of this curious resemblance between the animal and vegetable kingdoms, one or two of which will be mentioned in succeeding pages.
The name of “Lappet Moth” is hardly applicable, as it ought rather to be called the moth of the lappet caterpillar. This title is given to the creature because it is furnished with a series of fleshy protuberances along the sides, to which objects the name of lappets has been fancifully given.
It is generally supposed to be a rare moth; but I have not found much difficulty in procuring specimens either in the larval state or as moths. Both moth and caterpillar are of a large size, the caterpillar being about the length and thickness of a man’s finger. Its colour is a tolerably dark grey, but subject to some variation in tint. There is no difficulty in ascertaining this species of the creature, as it is clearly distinguished from caterpillars of a similar shape or line by two blue marks on the back of its neck, as if a fine brush filled with blue paint had been twice drawn smartly across it. The curious “lappets” too are so conspicuous that they alone would be sufficient for identification.
One of the examples of animal life simulating vegetation now comes before us in the person of the Brimstone Moth, or rather its caterpillar.
This is a very common insect, and may be recognised at once by its portrait on [plate C], fig. 3.