TAB. XCIX.
P H A L i E .N A GAURM.
C L O U D E D -C R IM S O N M O T H .
G A U R A B I E N N I S . I I N N ^
BIENNIAL GAURA.,
P h . N oam fpirilinguis crittata, alis albis: primoribus ftriga omnibufque margine fangu?r
neiSj thorace flavefcente.
F eeds on th e Gaura. I t w e n t into th e ground Auguft 3 0 th, and remained there
. till the- gth. o f Auguft following. T h e moth, fettles upon th e bloffoms, and a t a
final! diftance cannot b e diftinguifhed from them. I t has not been.,found in Yir-.
ginia.
If Mr. Abbot’s notes be not erroneous, the time this fpecies remains in the chryfalis is
very extraordinary.
We have here a moft linking parallel inftance to. that of Papilio Eubule, tab. 5 , of a
refemblance between the fly and the flower of the plant on, which its caterpillar feeds. This^
refemblance is even more complete than in the former inftance. What different beings are
the herb and the infedt while under the malk of their early Hate! yet even then Nature by a
fecret attraction brings them together., But when, as Pliny fays, they both Ihew themfelves
what they really are, or literally in their true colours, the moft cafual obferver mull be ftruck
with their wonderful fimilitude. The fecretions and modifications of colouring matter to
which this fimilitude is owing might afford a delightful fpeculation for the fancy, but our information
and our powers are not competent to attain any certain conclufions upon the fub-
jedl. We can only fay that the fame matter of nourilhment, which, when tranfmuted by the
infedl conftitution, generally produces fuch different hues from what it does in the vegetable^
in tliefe few inftances produces exadlly the fame.,-
I £ . A