Most of the larvæ may be described as semi-loopers, for their claspers number only three pairs, and when they walk their backs are considerably humped, somewhat after the fashion of the Geometræ. Some of them further imitate the Geometræ in their position of rest, holding on by their claspers only, with body straightened out at an angle with the leaf or twig on which they support themselves.
Unlike the majority of the Noctuæ, they do not descend to the ground when about to change, but spin a silken cocoon among the food plants.
The Burnished Brass (Plusia Chrysitis)
One of the commonest of the Plusiidæ is the Burnished Brass, so called on account of the large patches of bright golden green on the fore wings. The hind margin of these wings is very gracefully curved, and bordered with brown. A brown blotch fills the base of the wing, and the remaining area is of a beautiful metallic greenish yellow, broken by two large brown blotches, one on the costal and the other on the inner margin, which closely approach each other and sometimes meet.
This moth is very common everywhere, and is one of the frequent visitors to our flower gardens from June to August.
The caterpillar is thickest at the twelfth segment, and tapers from this point. Its colour is pale green. It has no longitudinal stripes on the back, but each segment is adorned with four or six
oblique white marks. Just above the spiracles is a white stripe. It feeds on the dead nettle (Lamium album), stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), and burdock (Arctium minus), and is full grown in June.