208
GEOMETRIDÆ.
of time. This, together with their obscure colours, and the warts which their bodies exhibit, renders it often quite difficult to distinguish them from twigs of the trees on which they feed. They feed on the leaves of various trees and plants, and have the instinct, when alarmed, of dropping down from the leaves, and suspending themselves by a thread, which enables them to remount when the danger is past. The chrysalides are either naked and suspended by the tail, or enclosed in a very slender cocoon, which is rarely subterraneous, and oft-times placed amongst dry leaves, &c."[1]
We have numerous species in Britain, many of them very agreeably adorned. The foreign species are also very numerous, but none of them attain a large size.
- ↑ Westwood's Modern Class. of Insects, vol. ii. p. 397.
