THE GARDEN TKxER. l6l 



described as dark brown with narrow, irregular whitish mark- 

 ings (Pkite 84, Fig. i). On the other hand, but less frequently 

 perhaps, the dark markings are nanowcd, shortened, and 

 reduced in number, until only spots remain on a white or 

 creamy ground (Plate <S4, Fig, 2). The red colour of the hind 

 wings is sometimes crimson in tone, or it assumes an orange 

 tint, and less often it gives place to yellow ; the central spots 

 often unite and form a band, or some, occasionally all, disappear ; 

 the marginal spots sometimes run into a band. 



Besides aberration, such as that referred to above, curious 

 abnormal specimens occur in the breeding cage from time to 

 time, but these are often more or less deformed. It is, per- 

 haps, remarkable, that so few " good things " in the way of 

 varieties are obtained from collected caterpillars, even when 

 these are reared by hundreds. Possibly, if the breeder started 

 operations with a stock of eggs from unusually pale or 

 unusually dark females, and then reserving only the lightest 

 or the darkest, as required, of each generation to con- 

 tinue the experiment, some interesting light or d.trk 

 '' strains " might result in coinse of time. The objection to this 

 is that before the desired result was obtained the stock might 

 be weakened by " inbreeding," and the moths consequently 

 deformed. If, however, the same line of experiment were con- 

 ducted by several people, each living in a difterent part of the 

 country, and with stock selected from the products of his own 

 locality, eggs, caterpillars, or chrysalids might be exchanged, 

 say, after the second year, and in this way the effect of 

 "inbreeding" would be minimized. 



The caterpillar, generally known as the " Woolly Bear,"' is 

 not at all an uncommon object throug-hout the country, and is, 

 perhaps, even more often noticed in gardens, including those of 

 suburban London. The figures of the early stages of this moth, 

 on Plate 85, are all from material obtained in my own small 

 garden. 



M 



