^Y^ . ^ ,^^^ WHITE ERMINE 149 



The White Ermine {Spilosoma mcnthastri). 



Older English names for this generally distributed and often 

 common species are The Great Ermine Moth of Wilkes (i773), 

 Harris (1778), and The Large Ermine of Haworth. 



On Plate 75 will be found three colour-forms of the moth. 

 Fig. I has the typical whitish colour, Fig. 2 is creamy on the 

 fore wings, and Fig. 3 has the fore wings buff. The last repre- 

 sents a specimen from Scotland, where, especially in the western 

 parts of the country, and also in the north of Ireland, and the 

 north-west of England, buff forms, both paler and much darker 

 than the one figured, are not uncommon. Sometimes the 

 Scottish specimens have smoky hind wings. As regards the 

 black spots on the wings, the species is subject to considerable 

 variation. In some examples almost all the markings are 

 entirely absent ; in others they are very small and numerous, or 

 large in size and number; the central spots on the fore wings 

 are often united, forming irregular designs. Again, there may 

 be an unusual amount of black spotting on the outer margins, 

 and all other parts of the wings free of spots. All these aber- 

 rations in marking, except, perhaps, the central cluster, seem 

 to occur in the various colour forms. An uncommon form, 

 known as var. walkcri, Curtis (I'late 78, Fig. 5), has the 

 black scales gathered together into streaks along the nervures 

 of the fore wings ; modifications of this variety have also been 

 found, or reared. Possibly by the careful selection of parent 

 moths showing tendency to the streaked aberration it might 

 happen in a generation or two that var. lualkcri would turn up 

 in the breeding cage to reward the rearer for trouble taken in 

 the experiment. 



The caterpillar, which is often not uncommon in gardens in 

 August and September, or even later, is brown, with long hairs, 

 and a reddish stripe along the middle of the back. It feeds on 



