BOM 



93 



♦ — 



BOM 



in a slanting direction ; and when its 

 wings are expanded, they measure 

 above two inches from one point to 

 the other. There are four or five black 

 notched lines on the upper wings, on a 

 white ground, and there is a black 

 spot between the middle ones. The 



Its caterpillar usually confines its at- 

 tacks to the leaves of the white and 

 black thorn, but sometimes spreads to 

 our fruit trees. M. Kollar observes 

 that — " [n the day time it sits quietly 

 on a leaf, or on a wall, and suflers itself 

 to be caught in the h;ind. It has re- 



front of the body is white, with black ceived its name from the posterior part 



spots, and the abdomen varied with 

 black rings, and red incisions, which, 

 however, are sometimes wanting. 



" The caterpillar, when fully grown, 

 measures from one and a half to one 



of its body being covered with a round 

 mass of golden yellow hair. Its fore- 

 wings are of a dazzling whiteness, as 

 is also the greater part of its body ; 

 only the principal vein of the forewinu 



and three-quarter inches, the transverse of the male is brown on the under side. 



diameter one line and a half. It is 

 usually of a brown grey mixed with 

 black, and occasfonally entirely black; 

 sometimes, but still more rarely, it is 

 of a whitish colour. The head is large, 

 covered with short hairs, and it has a 



and it has also sometimes a few black 

 dots on its wings. 



" At the end of June this moth usu- 

 ally appears, seeks a companion, and 

 continues its species. The female 

 usually lays her eggs on the under side 



brownish line alond the forehead, which of the leaf, in a small heap or mass, 

 ends in a triangular spot of the same and covers them with hair from her 

 colour over the mouth. Wherever it 1 tail. Hence, nothing is seen of the 

 goes it spins a thread after it out of the eggs, as they lie in rows under the 

 spinnerds under the mouth. If its rest- ' covering of hair. The number of eggs 

 ing-place be shaken, it hastily lets itself in the heap amounts to from two to three 



hundred ; they arc round, and of a gold 

 colour; when the female has laid her 

 eggs she dies, after having applied all 

 the hair from her tail' to form the co- 

 vering. The caterpillars are usually 

 hatched at the end of July. They have 

 a dirty-yellow appearance, a black 

 head, and a black ring round the neck; 

 they are thickly covered with hair, and 



down and curls itself up. It usually 

 goes into the pupa state from the begin- 

 ning of June to July, when the cater- 

 pillar is fully grown ; the pupa is sur- 

 rounded by a slight web, which is 

 sometimes formed among the foliage, 

 and sometimes over hollows of the 

 bark ; after which the caterpillar skin 

 is cast oft" in three or four days. The 



pupa is three-quarters of an inch long; have four rows of blackish dots along 

 at first green, then a brownish red, and the back. They change their skins in 

 afterwards becomes somewhat darker, : August. In the middle of September 

 or rather blackish, with a metallic ap- , they cease feeding, and in October they 



pearance. 



only come out of their nest in very 



The moth sometimes appears in ' warm days, when they lie on the out- 

 the last days of July or beginning of side, but return to the nest in the even- 

 August ; but the late ones do not appear ing. They become benumbed in No- 

 till September. Af\er pairing, the fe- i vember, and even in extreme cold they 

 male lays her eggs by means of her 1 only become benumbed, and resume 

 ovipositor, in the cracks of the bark of j their activity when warm weather sets 

 the old trees, in the form of a bunch of in. Before the buds on the trees have 

 firapes, to the amount of twenty or begun to burst in sprint', some of the 

 thirty in each cluster. As the oviposi- caterpillars come out of their nests and 

 tor cannot he used on the beach, oak, eat the folded leaves. In the course of 

 and birch, she lays her eggs on the bark, a few days they are found in multitudes 

 and (laps her wings over them, to cover at the forks of the branches in the side 

 thorn with the dust from her wings and of the tree exposed to the sun." — Kol- 

 body. One female usually lays one lar. 



hundred and twenty eggs in the course B. caruleocepha/a. Figure-of-eight 

 of twenty-lour hours, at three or four moth. Its caterpillar selects the leaves 

 intervals. They are not spherical, but of the black and white thorn, almond, 

 flat on two sides, and very sharp and apricot, and peach, though it will attack 



rough to the touch. 



those of other trees. Kollar tells us 



B. chrysorrhixa. Yellow-tailed moth. [ that — '• At the tune of pupation these 



