312 LEPIDOPTERA. 



blotches are sometimes wanting in the darker varieties. 

 Third segment with a large, deep velvety-black dorsal patch ; 

 spiracular line black, appearing vandyked from its uniting 

 the raised lateral tubercles ; above it is a faint greyish line. 

 Under-surface dull greenish. Head rounded, brown, delicately 

 reticulated with ochreous, or ochreous dotted with black. 

 Legs brown, a minute red dorsal tubercle on the tenth and 

 eleventh segments. A variety has the fourth segment sufEused 

 with whitish and two waved grey lateral lines. (C. Fenn.) Oc- 

 casionally a black variety occurs, or of mixed brown and black. 

 April to July on oak, birch, elm, lime, willow, and aspen, also 

 apple and other fruit trees, and more particularly upon the 

 various species of pine and fir. Eggs laid in August in the 

 chinks of the bark of trees, remain in that condition through 

 the winter, and hatch in April. The young larvae are said to 

 sun themselves upon the tree-trunks for a few days before pro- 

 ceeding to feed, after which their progress is rapid, but they 

 continue to resort to the tree-trunks by day Abroad this 

 species is sometimes most destructive in fir forests, but is 

 said to feed only on the mature leaves (needles) and not to 

 injure the younger shoots. 



Pupa stout, highly polished ; back and abdomen with 

 numerous tufts of pink hairs ; head tufted with black hairs ; 

 shining bronze-brown. (Fenn.) Sometimes the general 

 colour is almost black, always brilliantly glossy, and the 

 tufts of hairs vary in colour from red-brown to yellow. In a 

 thin, loose, serai-transparent cocoon of white silk in a chink 

 of the bark of the tree, frequently upon the trunk, and 

 distinctly visible. 



The moth is almost exclusively attached to woods. It sits 

 quietly upon tree trunks or branches in the daytime and flies 

 only at night. When sitting upon a lichen- covered trunk 

 its black markings on a white ground harmonise wonderfully 

 with the lichens, so that it is by no means so conspicuous as 

 might from its appearance be expectsd. The male is strongly 



