80 INSECT PESTS 



wingless female and is very common in London parks, 

 where it feeds mostly upon the leaves of the plane trees. 

 The males measure about an inch across the wings, which 

 are all of a rich red-brown colour, with one white spot on 

 the hind margin of each fore- wing. This is the little moth 

 which flies madly about in an odd, jerky fashion, during 

 July and August, even in the heart of the City. Its mate 

 is clad in plain grey, and never leaves the web-like coeoon 

 in which, as a jet-black pupa, she passed the winter, and 

 over it she lays all her eggs. These cocoons may usually 

 be found under the copings of walls, and the baby Va- 

 pourers, when hatched, at once drop to the ground, often 

 having to crawl an astonishing distance for their first 

 meal, or possibly their second, for many caterpillars will 

 eat the empty egg-shell by way of a start in life. These 

 caterpillars, after the first change of skin, are clad in a 

 most gorgeous and elaborate Hvery. All down the back 

 they are adorned with tufts of yellow hair, looldng hke a 

 row of shaving brushes stood on end. The general colour 

 is gre3dsh-brown with yellow '' slashings " and crimson 

 buttons at the side, the whole embeUished with a scheme 

 of hirsute appendages which an Assyrian king might well 

 envy. And aU this may hatch out into a modest little 

 grey female without any wings ! 



Talking of liveries, we must not forget the Lackey 

 Moth {Bombyx neustria), whose larva, one of the so-called 

 **tent" caterpillars, among which are the Gold-tail, 

 Brown-tail and other moths, is often injurious to apple 

 trees ; it is in fact widely distributed over the southern 

 countries and the Midlands, but is not met with so 

 frequently farther north. 



In the orchards of our home counties this larva is 

 addicted to apple, pear and plum trees, but principally 

 the apple. It spins webs all over the trees, giving them a 

 sickly unhealthy appearance. 



This caterpillar ia even more showy than that of the 



