This little insect is of a yellowish colour, with two dark bands across the fore wings; and both fore and hind wings are divided into six distinct feathers. It is a common moth, and frequents
sheltered spots, flying at dusk. It appears in August, remains on the wing till October, and then hybernates till the following April. During the winter it is commonly met with in outhouses and even in dwelling houses.
The caterpillar feeds during June and July on the flower buds of the honeysuckle (Lonicera Periclymenum). It is not hairy, like most of the larvæ of the last family; and, unlike these, it changes to a chrysalis in a silken cocoon.
Crambi
The third group of the 'Micros' is the Crambi, and contains about eighty species, arranged in four families.
Some of them are common moths with which all must be more or less familiar, as they are roused from the grasses on which they repose at almost every footstep as we walk through meadows in the summer. When at rest, they present a very peculiar appearance. Their wings are wrapped closely round their bodies in such a manner that they are hardly distinguishable from the stems on which they repose.
The larvæ have sixteen limbs, and are very variable in their habits. Some feed among moss or dry stems in silken tubes, some on the stems of reeds, and others inhabit the hives of bees and feed on the wax of the honeycomb.
The four families are:
- 1. Chilidæ—five species.
- 2. Crambidæ—about thirty species.
- 3. Phycidæ—over forty species.
- 4. Galleridæ—five species.