294 LEPIDOPTERA. 



darker spot in the upper part of each lobe ; body dark brown 

 with an irregular blackish dorsal line interrupted by a raised 

 red tubercle on the third, fourth, tenth and eleventh 

 segments, each tubercle bearing a short tuft of hairs ; sub- 

 dorsal and spiracular lines represented by rows of yellowish- 

 brown spots, and between these rows an interrupted line of 

 white spots or crescents ; immediately above the feet is a 

 third row of round yellowish spots. The spots and the body 

 generally clothed with short reddish-brown hairs. Some- 

 times the body, from the fourth segment, is of a pale bluish- 

 grey, the anterior portion being light brown, but the mark- 

 ings remain unaffected, 



August or September to June, constructing a nest when 

 very small, in which to hybemate. This is usually effected 

 gregariously, the nest being placed near the ground among 

 the stems of bushes. Other nests are made by the larv«, as 

 they grow, for security while changing their skins, and they 

 remain in companies till well grown. On hawthorn and 

 blackthorn, and even bramble. But in those seasons in 

 which it abounds the larvse feed freely on rose, on all sorts 

 of fruit trees, and, upon the coast, on the sea-buckthorn 

 {Hippophae rhamnoides). 



Pupa blackish-brown, with some small tufts of hairs on the 

 back and sides. In a thin, tough, dirty-brown cocoon, among 

 the twigs of its food-jDlant. Sometimes five or six cocoons 

 are enclosed in a common web in a hawthorn bush, and when 

 the larva has been plentiful they are to be found in all parts 

 of the bush. With the silk composing the cocoon are inter- 

 woven the hairs of the larva, which become brittle, and, when 

 the bush or hedge is disturbed, are thrown out as a fine dust, 

 which, sticking to the skin of the hands, face, or neck of a 

 passer-by, causes an intense irritation, M'ith inflammation 

 which closely resembles nettle-rash. It is on record that a 

 thick hawthorn hedge upon which larva? and cocoons have 

 been abundant, has retained, for months, the power of thus 



