COMMON VAPOURER MOTH. 



135 



Common Vapourer Moth. Orgyia cmtiqna, Linn. 



Okgyia antiqua. — Caterpillar (after Taschenberg) ; male moth ; female moth, 

 with abortive wings. 



This infestation is not as well known as it ought to be on 

 account of the destructive nature of the caterpillars, which 

 appear, as circumstances may suit them, to prey on almost 

 every kind of leafage, whether of Pear or Plum, or other kinds 

 of fruit trees. Hawthorn or Sloe, Roses or other garden plants, 

 or even Fir. The attack is very common, and to be found 

 both in town and country, and in orchard houses, as well as 

 out of doors. 



From the circumstance of the female moth having only 

 abortive wings, and laying her eggs on or near the webbed- 

 together leaves or spun cocoon from which she came out, the 

 attack (if not looked to) may be expected to increase yearly, 

 but at the same time this circumstance may be turned to good 

 account remedially. 



The male moths are of various shades of brown or chestnut, 

 with the fore wings clouded with darker colour, and with a 

 white, somewhat moon-shaped mark near the hinder angle. 

 The females are grey, not quite half an inch in length, and 

 have only abortive wings. 



The life-history is that when the female moths come out 

 from the chrysalis they creep on to the outside of the yellowish 

 grey somewhat oval cocoon, and there pairing takes place. 

 The female very soon begins depositing her eggs on the 

 surface of the cocoon and in the immediate neighbourhood, 

 and then dies. 



It was recorded by Edward Newman ('British Moths,' p. 40) 

 "that these eggs do not hatch all together, like those of moths 

 in general, but come out a few at a time over a period of ten 

 weeks, so that the caterpillar, chrysalis, and moths are all 

 found together throughout the summer and autumn." The 

 eggs of the late moths, which remain unhatched through the 

 winter, have been seen (when under special observation) to 

 hatch out their caterpillars about the 23rd of April. 



These fine caterpillars, which vary in length from about an 

 inch and a quarter to two inches when full grown, are dark 



