108 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



contact with the branches of other trees, 

 for the ascent of the female. By this means 

 hundreds, nay thousands, of females have 

 been destroyed on a single plantation in one 

 night, and as each female is calculated to 

 lay 200 eggs, the destruction of caterpillars 

 for the following season is very great. The 

 daub must be renewed every few days, and 

 the trees should be well shaken when the 

 daub is applied, to dislodge as far as pos- 

 sible any female moths that are in them. 

 The composition loses its stickiness in frosty 

 weather, but the moths do not then come 

 from their hiding-places under the dead 

 leaves and in the cracks of the ground and 

 bark. 



Where winter moths exist, the pruning 

 of fruit-trees should not be done till after 

 Christmas, that a portion of the eggs may 

 be carried away with the prunings, none of 

 which should be dug in or allowed to 

 remain on the ground, as the egg would 

 hatch in the spring, and the young cater- 

 pillar ascend the nearest tree or shrub. 



238. The Northern Winter Moth (Ohimatobia boreata). 



238, THE NORTHERN WINTER MOTH. 

 The antennae ai'e nearly simple in both 

 sexes ; the wings of the male fully 

 developed; the fore wings are semi-trans- 

 parent grayish-brown, with an ochreous 

 tint, and having several, generally seven, 

 narrow transverse lines, three of which, 

 near the base, are oblique and approximate ; 

 the others form two waved pairs ; hind 

 wings very pale brown, without markings, 

 and almost transparent ; female with very 

 small undeveloped wings ; quite incapable 

 of flight ; the fore wings pale brown with a 

 darker bar in the middle. 



The CATERPILLAR is very similar to that 

 of the winter moth, but more transparent, 

 and the stripes more indistinct, but it 



chiefly differs from that very common 

 species in having a brown head, that of the 

 winter moth being pale green and semi- 

 transparent : it feeds on birch. 



The MOTH appears in October, and is not 

 uncommon in the English counties, but has 

 not been recorded for Scotland or Ireland. 

 (The scientific name is Chimatobia boreata.) 



239. The November Moth (Oporabia dilutata). 



239. THE NOVEMBER MOTH. Antennae 

 almost simple, and the wings ample in both 

 sexes ; fore wings pale smoky-gray, with 

 several transverse waved lines of a darker 

 hue, somewhat smoke-coloured ; but both 

 the ground colour and the lines or bars are 

 too subject to variation in tint to admit of 

 any precise description ; hind wings, paler 

 and with several slender zigzag lines 

 parallel with the hind margin. 



The second figure represents a pale 

 variety of this very common moth. It ought 

 to be added that entomologists have given 

 names to several of the varieties of this 

 moth ; ventilata of Fabricius, impluviata, 

 aflinitata, and carpinata of Borkhausen, 

 inscriptata of Donovan, fimbriata of Ha- 

 worth, and neglectata of Stephens, are all 

 referred by G-uenee to this species. 



The head of the CATERPILLAR is rather 

 narrower than the body, and not notched 

 on the crown ; the body is stout, velvety, 

 and cylindrical ; the colour of the head is 

 dull green, the moufh tinged with purple ; 

 the body is apple-green above, but liable to 

 great variation, purple markings sometimes 



