i6 



THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



habitation thus formed they remain throughout the day. The 

 latter are more easy to see than the more readily evicted con- 

 tingent. All we have to do is to stand under the branches and 

 look upwards and outwards, when the united leaves and the 

 form of the caterpillar between them will be detected. Some, 

 of course, will be high up and out of reach in the ordinary way, 

 but there will be others more accessible. Then, at night, 

 especially in the early spring", we 

 may search, aided by the beam 

 of an acetyline lamp, the plants and 

 undergrowth in wood rides and clear- 

 ings, borders of woods, and lanes, 

 for caterpillars that are arousing 

 from hibernation. Throughout all 

 searching operations for larvae the 

 chance finding of eggs under leaves 

 or on twigs or buds is always pro- 

 bable. Cocoons in addition, among 

 the leaves of trees and on stems of 

 low plants and the trunks of trees, 

 may also be revealed. 



Furnished with a trowel — the 

 ordinary garden kind will do, but 

 the flatter pattern, sold by dealers, 

 is better— the collector may take a 

 turn at digging at the roots of trees 

 for chrysalids. No doubt there are 

 many kinds to be obtained in this way, but I cannot say much 

 for the practice, as my own efforts have not been very highly 

 rewarded. Not a single species was ever obtained by digging 

 that I could not have secured more easily in some other way. 



Methods of setting, and after-manipulation have been fully 

 discussed in " Butterflies of the British Isles.'^ 



Fig. i6. 



Caterpillar of Pale 

 Tussock-moth. 



