1894-] ANTLER MOTH CATERPILLARS 105 



evening flight I saw near Loch Dungeon in the previous 

 autumn. 



"A party of gentlemen fishing from near the Holm of 

 Dalquhairn for some five or six miles down the Ken found 

 all the trout they caught perfectly crammed with these 

 'hill-grub' caterpillars. Old shepherds will tell of times 

 when they were so numerous that after sudden thunder- 

 showers the sheep-drains have been completely dammed 

 up with their bodies. The moth deposits its eggs, which 

 produce larvae that descend to and feed mostly about the 

 roots of grasses during the autumn and early winter. After 

 hybernation they commence in March and April to feed 

 again with redoubled energy, and they turn to pupae at the 

 end of June and during July, producing the moths again in 

 a few weeks (the perfect insect flies during August and 

 September). Thus their cycle of existence in these various 



FIG. 4. ANTLER OR GRASS MOTH, CHAR&AS GRAMINIS, 

 AND CATERPILLARS. 



stages extends the whole year round. Their worst natural 

 enemy is the common rook at the season when these birds 

 betake themselves and their young broods to the hills, and I 

 have reason to believe that many other birds devour them. 

 The blackheaded gull, Lams ridibundus, and the common 

 gull, L. canus, are very fond of the larvae. Curlews take 

 a good many, golden plovers and lapwings pick them up 

 in numbers. Cuckoos also feed upon them, and I have 

 found the stomachs of snow buntings, shot on the hills at 

 midwinter, filled with these grubs" (R. S.). 



Miss Ormerod says : " The caterpillars, when full grown, 

 are about an inch or rather more long, with brown head, 

 and the body of a deep bronze colour, exceedingly shiny 

 on the back and on the upper part of the sides. The bronze 

 colour is divided lengthwise by three pale lines, the back 

 and side stripes meeting or almost meeting above the tail, 



