Egger-Moths. 



249 



drinker has the pecuHar habit of sipping at the dewdrops that gather on the grasses ; 

 and the lappet-caterpiHar has a number of fleshy prominences hanging looseh' along 

 its sides almost hidden by the fringe of long, brown hairs. The caterpillars appear 

 to have the power to vary the tint of their silk to make the cocoon harmonize with 

 the surroundings selected for it. 



All these moths when at rest present a close resemblance to dead leaves, and 

 even naturalists who 

 are specially looking 

 for them, and know 

 this tendency, are 

 frequently " taken 

 in " by it. :\lr. C G. 

 Barrett, an ento- 

 mologist of vast ex- 

 perience in the fiekl, 

 tells how he was im- 

 posed upon bv the 

 small egger. ^ He 

 says : "I was walk- 

 ing down one of the 

 country roads at 

 Norwich some years 

 ago when I noticed 

 a batch of eggs 

 (of this species) on 

 a hawthorn t w i g , 

 looking particularh- 

 velvety and exc] u i- 

 sitely arranged ; so 

 I picked the spra\- 

 to carry liomc, and 

 had carried it several 

 Iiundred yards before 

 I discovered t h a t 

 a n apparently d r \ 

 hawthorn leaf, drawn 

 closely to the stem 

 below the eggs, was 

 really the li\-ing 

 female moth, still clinging to the place on which she had so carefully arranged them. 

 I do not regard this as mere carelessness on my part, for the jMosture, the colour, the 

 brown band, even the white spot, harmonized in so extraordinary and unexpected 

 a manner with its position and surroundings that even after I had discovered the 

 creature I was amazed at the deception." 



One of this group is known as the December-moth,- because it does not emerge 

 ' Eriogaster lancstris. " Pcecilocampa populi. 



J^kulu hv 



Cocoons of the Lackey-Moth. 



//. />'.l.s/lll. 



Cocoons of the lackey in various stages of completion. Thosi' at the f x>t showing a thinness 

 of texture are not far advanced ; those at the top show little iletail l>:'caiisc they have been 

 ♦reated with the lime solution i-jected by the caterpillar bi'fore changing to a chrysalis. It is 

 this that proilucis the sh<ll-like appearance that has probably origin.ited the name igger. 



