The caterpillar is of a dirty white colour, dotted with black, and has a black head. It feeds on the roots of grasses in May. _The Flounced Rustic_ (_Luperina testacea_) The fore wings are greyish brown, with darker umber-brown markings. These latter are variable, but the most conspicuous is a series of dark crescent-shaped spots almost parallel with the hind margin, and immediately outside these is a series of paler crescents. [Illustration: FIG. 149.--THE FLOUNCED RUSTIC.] The caterpillar is dull flesh-colour, with a brown head, and a brownish plate on the second segment. It feeds on the stems of grasses. The moth is common throughout the British Isles, and flies in August and September. _The Cabbage Moth_ (_Mamestra Brassicae_) Whatever be your methods of moth collecting, you are sure to meet with _Brassicae_ in abundance. They swarm round the insect hunter's sugar in such numbers as to become a positive nuisance. They are also attracted by light. During the day they may be seen at rest on palings. The caterpillar is even better known, and with reason, for it is fearfully destructive to our vegetables and even our flower beds. It burrows into the hearts of cabbages, filling the galleries it makes with its excrement, often leaving no very visible outward signs of its presence within. But its ravages are by no means confined to cabbages. It eats with more or less relish almost every vegetable and flowering plant of our gardens, and is equally partial to the various herbs of the field. [Illustration: FIG. 150.--THE CABBAGE MOTH.] The fore wings of the moth are dingy brownish grey, marbled in a very confused manner by darker markings. The _reniform_ spot is very distinct, the orbicular less so. A light zigzag line runs parallel with the hind margin. It flies in June and July. The larva feeds later in the season, and changes to the chrysalis beneath the soil in the autumn. It is of a dark grey colour, with a darker line on the back, and a lighter one along the spiracles, which are white. _The Dot_ (_Mamestra Persicariae_) The conspicuous white reniform spot on the very dark marbled fore wings is always sufficient for the identification of this species. This moth is out in June and July; and during the latter month lays its eggs on the elder (_Sambucus nigra_), and the various low plants that supply the larva with food. [Illustration: FIG. 151.--THE DOT.] The larva is greenish or greyish, sometimes with a reddish tinge, with a light line down the back. The twelfth segment is humped, and there are dark V-shaped marks on the back of segments five to twelve inclusive. It is full grown in September, and burrows into the ground to undergo its change to the chrysalis, in which state it remains throughout the winter. _The Rustic Shoulder-knot_ (_Apamea basilinea_)