MARCH MOTH. 



177 



States Entomological Commission, U.S. Department of Agri- 

 culture,' 1885, pp. 143-148 ; and other reports quoted from in 

 preceding paper. 



March. Moth. Anisoptenjx cBscularia, Schiff. 



Anisopteeyx .esculaeia. — Winged male, wingless female, and band of eggs. 



The March Moth is a common kind, and, as described by 

 its name, is to be found early in the year ; and, in German 

 observations, the caterpillars have been recorded as often 

 noticeably injurious to Plum, together with those of the 

 Winter Moth {Cheimatobia brumata). With us, however, it is 

 rarely reported (so far as I am aware) as an orchard pest, and 

 I have no notes of it being sent me on any orchard tree 

 excepting Plum ; other trees which it is recorded as infesting 

 are Elm, Oak, and Lime, also Hawthorn and the Sloe. 



In 1890 the wingless female moths were observed at Glew- 

 stone Court, near Eoss, Herefordshire, as beginning to lay 

 eggs about the middle of March. The specimen sent me on 

 March loth I found (on the 18th) had laid eggs, using the 

 hairs from the tuft at the end of the tail (see figure), as is the 

 custom of this moth, to cover them with. In the previous 

 year it was observed at the end of March laying its bands of 

 down-embedded eggs on Plum at the Dimsdale Fruit Farm, 

 Westerham, Kent, and specimens were forwarded me of the 

 wingless females, together with the Plum twigs on which the}' 

 were then laying, on March 29th. 



The moths were about three-eighths of an inch long, brown 

 or fawn-colour above, shading to grey below, with darker head 

 and eyes, and dark pencil of hair at the end of the tail, and 

 might be generally described as thickly pear-shaped (the 

 pencil of hairs at the end of the tail answering to a broad, 

 short fruit-stalk— see figure). The hairs were long, the six 

 legs very long, and the moths, though sometimes quite quiet, 

 were able at pleasure to walk very rapidly ; one that I timed 

 as to speed walked the length of six inches in twenty-five 

 seconds. The wings were to all appearance totally absent, not 

 merely abortive as in the case of the Winter Moth, and the 

 downy coating of the moths very smooth and silky. 



N 



