THE GIPSY. 103 



The caterpillar, which is hairy and variegated with reddish 

 and black and white, may be recognised by the large bright 

 white marks on the back. It is often seen in the daytime on 

 the boles or branches of poplars, as well as on the foliage. It 

 frequently falls a victim to the parasitical tlies, and it is probably 

 due to these enemies that the species is less common in some 

 years than in others. Besides poplar, it will feed upon sallow 

 and willow. Hibernating when quite tiny, it reappears in April, 

 and, feeding up, is ready to enter the chrysalis state in June or 

 July, when it spins a flimsy silken cocoon among the leaves, or 

 in some suitable cranny on the tree or bush. The moth is 

 shown on Plate 43, Fig. 6, and the caterpillar and chrysalis on 

 Plate 44, F\g. 2, 2^?. 



The moth emerges in July or August, and may be found 

 resting on or under the leaves, and on stems and branches of 

 the trees upon which the caterpillar fed , or on palings, etc., 

 adjacent thereto. 



Distribution, Northern and Central Europe, Iberia, Corsica, 

 Italy, Balkan Peninsula, South-east Russia, North-east Asia 

 Minor, and Armenia. In the Far East, including China, Corea, 

 and Japan, it is represented by the var. ca7idida^ Staud. 



The Gipsy ( Ly ■ m auU-i a dispar) . 



Up to some sixty-five years ago, this species (Plate 46, 

 P'igs. I $ , 29) seems to have flourished in a wild state in the 

 fens of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, and also in Hunting- 

 donshire. Just how long it had been common in those 

 localities history does not inform us, but about 1792 Donovan 

 was unable to obtain a native specimen to figure. Stephens, 

 however, writing in 1828 states that at that time it abounded 

 in the Huntingdonshire fens. "It is said," he remarks "to 

 have been introduced into Britain by eggs imported by Mr. 

 Collinson, but the abundance with which it occurs near 



