62 



Insect Pests. 



[F. Edenden. 



FIG. 52. FEMALE MARCH MOTH. 



(Anisoptenjx cescularia. Schiff.) 

 (Greatly enlarged to show side view of tail tuft.) 



Cambridgeshire and in 

 Yorkshire. The popular 

 name is derived from the 

 date of its appearance. 

 Specimens may, however, 

 be taken as early as mid 

 February and as late as 

 mid April, a few strag- 

 glers going on until the 

 end of the month. 



LlFE-HlSTORY AND 



HABITS. 



The male moth flies at 

 dusk and may be found 

 in gardens, orchards, 



woods, and along hedgerows. The colour of the fore wings is 



greyish-brown, with dark and pale wavy lines running across, as seen 



in the photograph (Fig. 51), and there is a small dark brown spot 



near the upper border of each wing ; 



the wing expanse varies from 1 to 



li inch; the hind wings are pale 



grey, with a darker line more or less 



continued from the outer line on 



eacli fore wing. 



The female is greyish to greyish- 

 brown and quite wingless, and has a 



very pronounced fan -like tail of 



hairs. She crawls up the tree trunks, 



just as the two preceding do. The 



eggs are laid in a partial band, vary- 

 ing in size from j to nearly ^ inch 



across, they are deposited in more or 



less parallel rows and are embedded 



in hairs from the fan-like extension 



of the tail ; the eggs are bright and 



shiny, and vary in number in each 



ring. Ormerod (1) records as many 



as five hundred in a ring, this appears 



to be exceptional, some fifty to two 



hundred being a wide limit. 



The eggs hatch in April. The 



[F. Edenden. 



FIG. 53. 

 CATERPILLAR OF THE MARCH MOTH. 



