The Large Emerald is not a very common moth, but you may sometimes find it by shaking bushes and the branches of trees in June and July. The caterpillar feeds on the leaves of birch and elm, and is green in colour, with a yellow line along each side, and six pairs of little reddish bumps which look like tiny buds. About the end of May it forms a kind of cocoon by spinning together two or three leaves of its food-plant, and turns into a brownish-green chrysalis, with two rows of reddish spots on its back.
1. Bordered White, male2. Bordered White, female
3. Magpie4. Magpie Caterpillar
PLATE XXXVII
THE BORDERED WHITE (1 and 2)
If you want to find this handsome moth, the best way to do so is to shake the branches of fir trees with a long stick during the month of May. Then you are almost sure to see it flying off in a great hurry to seek for refuge somewhere else. But it never seems quite happy unless it can hide away among the needle-like leaves of a fir tree. The male is very different in appearance from the female, for his wings are either white or yellowish-white in colour, with a broad black border, while hers are orange-brown all over, with only two narrow dark bands. And, besides that, his feelers are beautifully plumed, while hers are just like threads. In fact, the male and female are so unlike one another that, if you did not know what they were, you would be almost sure to take them for two perfectly different insects.
The caterpillar of this moth is a very pretty little creature of a pale green colour, with a broad white line along the back and a bluish-white line below it; then a yellow line below that; and then a row of orange spots. You may sometimes find it in August, feeding on the leaves of fir trees.