300 THE BIOLOGY OF INSECTS 



respiration and all other vital functions are reduced to a 

 minimum." A hibernating queen- wasp reverts to the 

 attitude of a pupa, with her legs bent so that her feet point 

 backwards ; her wings are *' folded ventrally between the 

 second and third pairs of legs." She rests in some sheltered 

 nook, maybe clinging to a stem or grass-blade with her 

 strongly adducted mandibles. One may find such wintering 

 queens between the stones of a loosely built w^all on a high 

 hill-side or in the crack of a window frame in a suburban 

 house. If roughly disturbed in the latter situation she may 

 be sufficiently aroused to use her sting, but the wound 

 inflicted will be comparatively feeble. The vanessid butter- 

 flies sometimes find winter- quarters in human habitations ; 

 a " Small Tortoiseshell " may mildly disturb a church 

 congregation by fluttering down from the rafters during 

 service-time. But these insects usually frequent hollow 

 trees, the overhangiijg eaves of sheds, and similar shelters 

 where the chill of open-air conditions will forbid the too 

 early close of their winter sleep. An exceptionally warm 

 and sunny winter's day may, however, lure some hibernating 

 butterflies to leave their shelters probably with disastrous 

 result. Of the British moths hibernating as adults, Blair 

 mentions that the handsome noctuid Scoliopferyx lihatrix 

 and the grey geometer Triphosa dtihitata are often found 

 abundantly in winter " on the walls and roofs of the caves, 

 which they shared with numerous gnats and Long- eared 

 Bats." 



As might be expected, the egg serves as the wintering 

 stage for many insects, though in some of these the embryo 

 may complete its development in autumn, so that the creature 

 ought rather to be described as an '' unhatched larva " ; 

 this condition is found, for example, in Ly7nantria mo7iacha. 

 The wingless female of the *' Vapourer " {Orgyia antiqua), 

 another moth of the same family, emerges in autumn from 

 her cocoon attached to a tree twig, rests on the cocoon 

 during the approach and mating of the active brown-winged 

 male, then lays on the silk her batch of cylindrical eggs, 

 on which before her death she sheds from her body hairs 



