PLATE XXVII1. Wood Leopard2. Green Forester3. Six-Spot Burnet
PLATE XXVII
1. Wood Leopard2. Green Forester3. Six-Spot Burnet
When one first sees this pretty little insect flitting about in the hot sunshine it is rather difficult to believe that it is really a moth, for it looks a great deal more like a bright green fly. The best places in which to look for it are grassy clearings in woods in which mulleins are growing; for it is very fond indeed of resting on the blossoms of those plants, where its glossy green wings form a most lovely contrast to the yellow petals. On dull days, however, it never flies at all; and even on fine ones, if the sun is clouded over for more than a very few minutes, all the Green Foresters are sure to disappear.
The caterpillar of this moth is shaped exactly like a tiny woodlouse, and its legs are so short that you can only just see its feet projecting from underneath its fat little body. It is dingy green in colour, with a line of black spots running along the middle of its back, and a pale stripe along each side. It feeds on the common sorrel, and when it is fully fed it spins a little silken cocoon among the leaves, and turns to a chrysalis inside it. Look for the caterpillar in May and the early part of June, and for the moth about midsummer.
The “burnets” are most lovely little moths, with glossy blackish-green front wings, marked with bright crimson spots, and crimson hind-wings with dark green borders. Like the “green forester,” they fly only in the hot sunshine; but even on dull days you may often see them clinging to grass-stems in fields and by the roadside.
Several different kinds of these moths are found in the British Islands, of which the Six-spot Burnet is by far the commonest. On a hot day about the middle of June you may often see it flying about in hundreds. And if you look on the grass-stems you are almost sure to find numbers of its odd little cocoons, which are bright yellow in colour, and look just like tiny shuttles with very sharp points. The caterpillars which spin these cocoons, however, feed chiefly on trefoils and clovers. They are dingy yellow in colour, with rather hairy bodies, marked with two rows of small black spots on either side. You may find them towards the end of May, and they spin their cocoons early in June.