GENERAL PRA C TIC E. ENEMIES. 



287 



tubercles, and at the head and tail are tufts of dark clubbed hairs. Good specimens 

 reach 2 inches in length. It is very rapacious, making almost every kind of tree its 

 prey, including fruit trees. When full-fed it forms a cocoon, making use of its hairs, 

 in crevices, among leaves, on trunks of trees, walls, palings, &c., as most convenient, 

 and changes into a dirty yellow hairy pupa. The moths emerge in the autumn, pair 

 at once, and the female lays her eggs on her cocoon or near, where they lie until 

 spring, and hatch out at different times, so that Iarva3 and moths often occur together. 



Remedial measures should be directed to the destruction of the larvse by hand- 

 picking, as well as cutting away and burning the webbed -up leaves. Walls and 

 infested trees should be closely scrutinised for cocoons, and in winter be washed with 

 the alkali solution named at page 251. 



Fig. 90. MOTTLED UMBER MOTH (HYBEENIA DEFOLIABIA) ON PLUM. 

 References : 1, moth, male ; 2, moth, female ; 3, caterpillar ; 4, defoliated branch ; 5, clean branch. 



Mottled Umber Moth (Hybernia defoliaria). The moths (Fig. 90) emerge between 

 October and March. The male has wings 1 J to 1 J inch in spread, brown verging to 

 reddish yellow, with darker bars crossing the front wings and a dark spot between them. 

 The females are almost wingless, brown, with dark spots on the back, and crawl on to 

 the trees, or are carried by the males, to lay their eggs. Their Iarva3 are "loopers," 

 slender, and brown above, greenish yellow below. The caterpillars infest blackthorn, 

 hawthorn, lime, oak, besides fruit trees, and are very destructive. During June or July 

 the larvae become full-fed, let themselves down to the ground by threads, and turn 

 to pupa3 on or just within the ground, where they lie near the trees from which they 

 have fallen, and the moths emerge in the autumn, onwards till spring. 



