THE CREAM-SPOT TIGER. 163 



the hind wings the black spots nearest the base are sometimes 

 widened and lengthened so as to meet and form a transverse 

 band ; in other specimens the black markings on the outer area 

 are run together into a patch. Occasionally both forms of 

 hind wing aberration occur in the same specimen. I am not 

 aware of any case in which the hind wings are spotless, but I 

 have seen specimens in which this condition was very closely 

 approached. Very rarely the hind wings are suffused with 

 black, and at least two specimens with all the wings suffused 

 with black have been recorded. (Plate 87, Figs. 1-3.) 



The pearly white eggs are laid in neatly arranged batches on 

 leaves. The caterpillars hatch out in July, feed for a few weeks, 

 and go into hibernation while still small. They resume feeding 

 in a favourable season as early as mid-March. Some that I 

 obtained at the end of March, then about three parts grown, 

 began to spin up on April 15. The full-grown caterpillar is 

 black with several star-like clusters of brown hairs on each ring, 

 the hairs on the Ixick of the hinder rings rather longer and 

 slightly curved backwards ; the head, legs, and claspers are 

 red, approaching crimson. A diet of dandelion suits it very 

 well, but it will also eat chickweed, dock, nettle, groundsel, and 

 in fact almost any low-growing plant. The outer leaves of 

 lettuce are useful on occasion but should not be given exclusively, 

 and it also likes the tender shoots of gorse {Ulex europccus). 

 Chrysalis and cocoon somewhat similar to those of the last 

 species (Plate 86). 



The moth emerges in May and June. Occasionally a few 

 larvcC will feed up and the moths appear the same year, but 

 this only happens in captivity and not in the open. When 

 reposing in the daytime, on a hedgebank for example, with the 

 fore wings closed down over and hiding the yellow hind wings 

 this moth is not so conspicuous as one might suppose it would 

 be. At night it is active on the wing and often flies into houses, 

 attracted by the light. I have put up specimens now and then 



