THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 267 



Stripe, snowy white, bordered on each side with black ; on 

 each side of this is a broader orange stripe, intersected 

 thronglioiit it>< length with black, and also bordered with 

 black; tliis is followed by a broad lateral stripe of a bluish 

 lead-coloui', and irrorated thronghont with niinnte black dots; 

 this broad stripe also includes four large black spots on the 

 3rd, 4th, 12th and 13th segments respectively, and is again 

 fidlowed by a narrow orange stripe bordered with black ; 

 below this is a narrower and very irregular lead-coloured 

 stripe reticulated with black, and includi ig the blackish spi- 

 racles ; and below the spiracles is a faintly indicated and 

 irregular orange stripe; ventral surface smoky jduaibeous, 

 variegated with black; legs black; claspers plumbeous, pale 

 at the extremities ; dorsal hairs mostly black, lateral hairs 

 ferruginous. About the middle of June it either wanders 

 away froui its food-plant, and takes up its station on some 

 fence, railing, tree-trunk, stone wall, or other durable object, 

 or spins together the leaves of its food-plant ; in either case 

 it Ibruis a cocoon composed of yellow silk, the outer portion 

 loose and thin, the inner compact, oval, and nuich resembling 

 the cocoon of the common silkworm : this cocoon is remark- 

 able in containing a large amount of a dry yellow substance, 

 a good deal resembling powdered sulphur; the object of this, or 

 the source whence it comes, appears not to have been inves- 

 tiaated. Within the cocoon the larva turns to a dark brown 

 or black pupa, rather elongate in form, and having the 11th 

 and l-2ih segments restricted ; the pupa is clothed with short 

 brown hairs, which are particularly dense at the two ex- 

 tremities. The moth appears on the vvnig in July. This 

 species was formerly so abundant in the vicinity of London 

 as to be a complete pest to the gardener, but it appears now 

 to have left the district, and to have established itself in 

 various places at a distance IVom the metropolis. In the Isle 

 of Wight this year it has been particularly abundant, and 

 jVIr. Pristo, to whom I am indebted for a most liberal supply, 

 has found it feeding, in its usual sociable gregarious manner, 

 on the oak, a tree on which I have never observed it. — 

 Edward Newman. 



