THE VAGABOND CRAMBUS : DESCRIPTION OF MOTH. 141 



Description of the Moth. 

 The moth, shown in Fig. 33, has a slender body, and measures, on 

 an average, one inch across its expanded wings. Its front wings are 

 of a dull, yellowish color, and are only marked 

 with rows of blackish scales between the veins, and 

 with a black dot at the end of each vein on the 

 outer margin ; the fringe of the wings has a 

 Fig. 33.— The Vaga- goldcn reflection. The hind wings are pale yel- 

 CRTJifuT'"v''uLG™Zr lowish, with long, paler fringes. The thorax and 

 Lus, natural size. abdomen are of the color of the wings. From the 



front of the head the two long, scaly palpi, folded together, project like 

 a proboscis or beak, or, as in many cabinet specimens, diverge in a V, 

 as in the figure. 



The original description by Dr. Clemens {loc. cit.) is as follows: 

 " Labial palpi luteous, dark fuscous externally. Head and thorax 

 luteous ; tegulae with a fuscous stripe. Fore wings luteous, with nu- 

 merous fuscous streaks in atoms along the veins, and two in the disk. 

 Hind margin with a row of terminal black dots; cilia golden-hued. 

 Hind wings yellowish ; cilia whitish." 



The Eggs. 

 From some of the moths from the VVatertown cocoons which I had 

 confined in a box with a piece of sod, eggs were obtained the last of 

 August. Some of them were adhering slightly to the grass, but most 

 of them were lying on the surface of the ground. It is, therefoi-e, 

 probable that the eggs are dropped at random in the grass — the 

 larger number reaching the ground. At first they are of a pale yellow- 

 green color, but later, as they approach the time for their hatching, 

 they assume a pink shade. According to Professor Riley, who " found 

 the egg-shells quite common in the earth of some sward, sent Septem- 

 ber 12th, by Mr. Adams, from a field that had been devastated by the 

 larvae, the eggs are pale yellow when laid, but become orange after- 

 ward; they are elongate-oval, very slightly broader at base than the 

 top, and ribbed as in those of various butterflies, there being about 

 twenty longitudinal, rather sharp ridges, and about thirty less marked 

 transverse ones. The average length is 0.7 mm. and diameter 0.3 

 mm."* 



*I am unable to reconcile with the above description some memoranda and rude figures 

 that I had made of the egg, noting forty-four distinct longitudinal stria;, and the height 

 (figured as an oblate-spheroid) to the diameter as two to three. Can my memory be at 

 fault in referring these notes to C. vulgivagellus ? The egg of a British species, C. 

 Cfulmellun, is thus described : " Elliptical, with an elongate depression on part of surface, 

 very closely ribbed and finely reticulated ; when first laid it is ol a whitish-straw tint, 

 changing in two days to flesh color, again onwards to salmon color, and then to deep pink, 

 when it begins to hatch." 



