THE LIFE-HISTOKY OF OCNKKIA DISPAK. 237 



native homes." lu the same Report twenty-four species of American 

 birds (inchiding the famous Bhie Jay, immortalized by Mark Twain) 

 are mentioned as feeding on tlie insect in three of its stages ; there are 

 are also four species of insects which have been found to destro}?^ the 

 ova, and seven true parasites which live in the larvae. I cannot give 

 you any information as to its parasitical enemies in Europe, but I do 

 know that the audacious British sparrow alights on the scullery I'oof 

 just outside my sitting-room window, and greedily snaps up the female 

 moths which I discliarge when I have a superfluity of them. 



It has been suggested by more than one author that tlie species was 

 originally introduced into this country artificially, and the following 

 remarks by Wilkes, in the 1st edition of his English Moths and Bidlerfiies 

 (1746-60) lend some support to the suggestion. He says: — "This moth 

 is very common in Germany, and was produced [in England jire- 

 sumably — C.N.'] from a nest of eggs, that were sent to Mr. Peter 

 Collinson, who gave them to Charles Lockyer, Esq. He bred moths 



from them and having turned numbers of them wild (as 



I have been informed) about Ealing, near Brentford in Middlesex, they 

 are to be found there, but not anywhere else that J have heard of." 

 However that may be, there does not seem much doubt that it became 

 extinct somewhere about 1855, although it is reported to have swarmed 

 at Horning Fen in Norfolk about 1830, where it seems to have fed on 

 sweet gale (see Ent., vol. xxv., p. 259). All efforts to re-establish it 

 appear to have been crowned with failure. 



It is a remarkable coincidence that the other British lepidopteron 

 Avhich bore the name dispar is now also extinct in this country ; both 

 having been found in the same locality, and both becoming extinct 

 within a very few years of each other. 



The eggs of the Gipsy Moth are laid during the months of Jidy, 

 August and Sejitember in America, and I presume the time is about the 

 same wherever the insect occurs. They are usually deposited on the 

 trunks or branches of trees and not on the leaves, since they have to 

 pass the winter in the egg state and would be carried away with the fall- 

 ing leaves, thus making it difficult for the young larvfB to obtain food in 

 the spring. While the female is depositing her eggs she remains qui- 

 escent on one spot, no part of the insect moving except the extremity of 

 the abdomen. The eggs are about i/ie in. in diameter, and are shaped like 

 a rather flat orange. They are laid in large patches of one or more 

 layers, each patch containing from 150 to 300 eggs thatched over with a 

 kind of fur, which is in reality the dark, velvety scales so conspicuous at 

 the end of the abdomen of the female. This furry substance is plucked 

 out by means of an apparatus specially formed for the purpose, and 

 resembling a pair of forceps in miniature. When newly laid, the egg 

 is of a pale and somewhat watery chocolate colour ; bxit in a week or 

 two this changes to a dark smoky grey, and it remains of this tint 

 throughout the winter until spring arrives, when it becomes almost 

 black a few days before hatching. 



The hatching of all the eggs in any one batch is not simultaneous, 

 which is contrary to the usual rule in such cases, but the young larvae 

 continue to come forth, a few at a time, for three or four Aveeks, in 

 fact throughout April. The result of this arrangement is that larvae in 

 all stages of growth, pupte, and even imagines are found at the same 

 time. 



