and gorse (Ulex); in captivity it seems to thrive on laburnum. Most frequently obtained in the springtime after hibernation.
The moth is to be found in June and July on moorlands and commons pretty well throughout the British Isles, but it seems not to have been noted north of Perthshire, in Scotland.
Odd specimens have been known to occur in late August or early September, but this is quite exceptional.
The Large Emerald (Geometra papilionaria).
This charming green species (Plate [40], Figs. 1 and 4) varies in tint and in the distinctness of the whitish wavy cross lines. In some examples, one or other of the lines is absent, and far more rarely there is but little trace of any of these markings. Occasionally, the discal mark is preceded by a whitish wedge-shaped spot on the fore wings (ab. cuneata, Burrows).
When newly laid the eggs are whitish, but soon change to greenish yellow, and finally to pinkish.
The caterpillar hatches in late summer, and feeds on birch, hazel, and beech, until the leaves begin to fall in the autumn; it then constructs a carpet of silk on a twig, and near a bud, upon which it takes up its position for the winter. When thus seen, its reddish brown colour, variegated more or less with green, assimilates so closely with its surroundings that the creature is not easy to detect. In the spring, when it awakens, the green colour increases in extent as the buds open and the leaves unfold; when they are fully expanded, the caterpillar sits among the foliage towards the tip of a twig, and is then almost entirely green, the reddish brown only showing on the head, slightly on the warts, and more distinctly on the hinder parts which are in touch with the twig. The chrysalis, enclosed in a flimsy silken web among the dead leaves, usually on the ground, is of a delicate green colour, dotted with buff on the back, and shaded with buff on the wing cases. The early stages are figured on Plate [42].
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