This is called the Magpie Moth because its wings are chiefly black and white in colour, like the plumage of a magpie. But there are two orange bands on the front wings as well, and the body is orange, spotted with black. It varies a good deal in colouring however, for sometimes there are hardly any black markings on the wings, and sometimes there are hardly any white ones. And just now and then you may meet with a very odd Magpie Moth indeed, with the wings on one side of its body a good deal larger than those on the other!
This is a very common moth indeed, and you may shake it out of the bushes in almost any garden in July and the early part of August. And you may also find its caterpillars feeding on the leaves of currant and raspberry and gooseberry bushes. It is creamy-white in colour, with rows of large black spots, and a yellow stripe along each side, and turns into a dark brown chrysalis with orange bands round it. And it seems to have a very nasty taste, for no bird will ever attempt to eat it.
This insect is sometimes known as the Currant Moth.
1. Spring Usher2. Winter Moth, male
3. Winter Moth, female
PLATE XXXVIII
THE SPRING USHER (1)
This very pretty moth is one of the first to make its appearance after the winter is over, for you may see it resting on fences and walls in March, and sometimes even in February. But you may easily pass it by without noticing it, for it is very fond of sitting among splashes of mud, which it resembles so much that you may look straight at it from a distance of only a few feet, without seeing what it really is. It varies in colour almost as much as the magpie moth, for sometimes it is nearly white all over, and sometimes it is nearly black; but generally the wings are greyish-white, with a few narrow black stripes.