22 APPLE. 



thorn, Sloe, Oak, Elm, Birch, &c. They are very easily known 

 by their gay colouring, from which they take their German 

 name of "Livery Cateri^illars," and the moth the name of 

 "Lackey Moth." "When full-fed (which is about midsummer) 

 the caterpillars are about an inch and a half in length, 

 and hairy ; of a bluish grey colour, marked with two black 

 eye-like spots on the head, two black spots with a scarlet 

 space between them on the next ring, and three scarlet or 

 orange stripes along each side, between the two lowest of 

 which on each side there is a blue stripe ; these gaily-coloured 

 markings being divided by lines of black, or black spotted 

 with blue. The eggs are laid in the summer or autumn of the 

 preceding year to that in which the attack takes place, and 

 they may be found in winter and spring arranged in a compact 

 mass, or rather ring-like band on the twigs, exactly as figured 

 (p. 21). From these eggs small black hairy caterpillars" hatch 

 about the beginning of May, and immediately spin a web over 

 themselves, which they enlarge from time to time as needed 

 for their accommodation. In these web-nests they live in 

 companies of from fifty to two hundred, and from them the 

 caterpillars go out to feed on the leaves, returning for shelter 

 in wet weather or at night. When alarmed they let them- 

 selves down by threads, either to the ground, or else (after 

 hanging in the air till the alarm is past) they go up again by 

 their threads to the tree. When full-grown, which is about the 

 middle of the summer, they scatter themselves separately, and 

 do not go doivn into the ground to turn to chrysalids, but spin 

 cocoons anywhere in reach of their food-trees, as on leaves, or 

 in hedges, beneath the bars of railings, under roofs of sheds, 

 or even on the top of walls, where each caterpillar spins a 

 silken cocoon, mixed with sulphur-coloured or white powder 

 and with hairs from the skin woven into it, and from the 

 brown chrysalis in this cocoon the moth comes out towards 

 the latter part of summer. 



The figure (p. 21) shows the shape and size of the Lackey 

 Moth. The colouring is excessively variable, but the fore 

 wings may be described as of some shade of rusty-fox, 

 yellowish, or dark brown tint, with two transverse bars, these 

 being sometimes of a pale tint on a darkish ground, or some- 

 times, on the contrary, the ground colour is the paler, and 

 the bars dark ; and in one specimen before me there is a 

 transverse band between the two bars, of a deeper colour than 

 that of the rest of the wings. The hinder wings are also of 

 some tint of brownish colour. 



It is stated that the moths, and especially the females, for 

 the most part remain concealed by day under leaves and in 

 long grass, and come out at night. 



