LAPPET MOTH. 



25 



The attack of the Lappet Caterpillars to orchard leafage 

 has very rarely been reported as occurring to an injurious 

 extent with us, and here, as well as on the Continent of 

 Europe (where the attack is much more destructive), it is 

 rather from the great size of the caterpillars than from their 

 numbers that they are seriously mischievous ; still, as, when 

 they do occur, they have a capacity of wholly destroying every 

 leaf that they come across down to the very footstalk (as 

 shown in the figure, p. 24), a few notes taken from observa- 

 tions sent me from presence of the attack on Apple in the 

 neighbourhood of Hereford in the years 1893 and 1894, may 

 be of useful interest. 



The caterpillars of this " Lappet Moth " grow to a length 

 of from four to five inches (one specimen sent me was some- 

 what over four inches long), and are cylindrical, slightly hairy, 

 and grey or brownish in colour, but the tint is variable, and 

 so also is the pattern of the markings down the middle of the 

 back. These may be almost absent, or may occur as a row of 

 somewhat V-shaped dark marks ; but across the back, on the 

 segments next the head, are two beautifully lustrous, deep blue 

 or purple velvety bands. These are characteristic markings, 

 and are especially observable when the caterpillar is in move- 

 ment ; when at rest they may be hardly noticeable. _ The 

 caterpillars have three pairs of claw-feet, and four pairs of 

 sucker-feet beneath the body, besides the pair at the end of 

 the tail ; and just above the feet, and all along each side is a 

 row of fleshy warts or appendages with long grey hairs, to 

 which the name of "lappets" has been given, whence the 

 name of " Lappet Moth." These " lappets " show clearly on 

 the segments not furnished with feet or with sucker-feet, but 

 they are so often not clearly represented, especially above the 

 sucker-feet, that much care has been taken to give them dis- 

 tinctly in the figure, p. 24. 



When full-grown, which may be in the late spring or early 

 summer, the caterpillar spins a dark-coloured oval_ cocoon, 

 apparently in any convenient shelter, as the localities are 

 variously recorded as being in clefts of bark, or between boards 

 under eaves, or amongst the lower twigs of the plant on which 

 the caterpillar fed, or close to the ground amongst grass. 



From these cocoons the moths appear at variable dates 

 from June to July and August, or sometimes even as early as 

 May. The moths vary a good deal in size ; the females being 

 sometimes as much as three inches and a quarter in the 

 spread of the fore wings, whilst the male, as in the specimen 

 before me, may be no more than two. The colours are rich 

 brown, marked transversely on the fore wings with irregularly 

 disposed dark scalloped lines ; the hinder wings are somewhat 



