Volume 14, Plate XXVIII / Entomology (Insects)

Magpie or Goose­berry Moth, Mottled Beauty & Clifden Beauty

Abraxas Grossulariata, Melanippe Hastata & Zerene Albicillata

1. & 2. Magpie or Goose­berry Moth. One of the most abundant native moths, the white upper wings measuring an inch and a third to nearly two inches, crossed by two bright yellow bands and six transverse rows of rounded black spots, the under wings white with scattered and marginal spots and the body yellow with black spots. The white blue-tinged caterpillar, black-spotted and yellow beneath, abounds with the moth wherever currant and gooseberry bushes grow, the insect appearing early in summer.
3. The Mottled Beauty. Measuring an inch to nearly an inch and a half, the ground colour white with a broad irregular black band round the hinder margin of all wings, a very irregular central black band on the upper pair, and an interrupted basal band nearly divided by a white crescent, the fringe alternating black and white tufts. The dusky-brown caterpillar, with undulating yellow side lines, feeds on birch, this moth found June and July, by no means frequent, in southern England.
4. Clifden Beauty. Milk-white in ground colour with a small dusky-black central spot on all wings, the forewings with a brown variegated base, a large dark-brown three-cornered patch near the tip, and the whole hinder margin tinged dusky-brown with faint waved white lines, the head and thorax pitch-brown. The green caterpillar, with brown crescent-shaped dorsal spots, feeds on raspberry, this moth prized for the delicacy of its markings, very scarce but found near London, Reading, and in Kent.