NOCTUKNI. 



43 



fore it reaches the inner margin ; the second, 

 situated beyond the middle of the wing, turns 

 outward towards its anal angle : hind wings 

 darker than the fore wings. The female is 

 dull red-brown, with two pale transverse bars 

 on the fore wings : head, thorax, and body, 

 dull red-brown. A very variable insect, and 

 therefore very difficult to describe. The 

 caterpillar is long, and slightly hairy, it can- 

 not roll itself in a ring when touched ; the 

 back is black, and the sides blue-grey; the 

 black on the back is a broad stripe of equal 



The Ground Lackey (Female), 

 width from one end of the caterpillar to 

 the other, and is trausversed throughout its 

 length by four longitudinal interrupted orange 

 streaks; the blue-grey of the sides has an 

 orange stripe in the middle, and is also dotted 

 throughout with minute black points ; the hairs 

 of the caterpillar are orange brown. It feeds on 

 the sea-wormwood, the wild carrot, and some 

 other plants, and spins a sulphur-coloured 

 cocoon among the leaves, in which it turns to 

 a black chrysalis. The caterpillar is found in 

 May ; the Moth appears in August. Very 

 abundant in the Isle of Sheppey, but not met 

 with elsewhere ; I am indebted to Mr. Ingall 

 not only for caterpillars, chrysalises, and Moths, 

 but also for all I know of this interesting 

 Moth. I found that in confinement the 

 caterpillar would eat the leaves of apple, 

 pear, rose, poplar, and birch, if sprinkled with 

 salt and water. (The scientific name is 

 Bombyx castrensis.) 



95. THE Fox MOTH. Male reddish-brown, 

 female dingy-brown, the fore wings in both 

 sexes having two pale transverse bars, one 

 exactly in the middle, the other nearer the 

 base : the head, thorax, and body, are uniform 

 brown. The caterpillar is of a rich velvety, 

 golden, orange -brown colour on the back, 

 with a number of long silky-brown hairs 



95. The Fox Moth (Bombyx Rubi). 



along the middle ; the sides are entirely black 

 it rolls in a ring when touched, and then 

 shows spaces between the segments of the 

 most intense velvety black. It feeds on 

 bramble and on heath, amongst which it spins 

 a very long and loose dark-brown cocoon, in 

 which the hairs of the caterpillar are 

 abundantly intermixed. I have one of these 

 cocoons four inches long ; in this cocoon it 

 changes to a large and smooth dark -brown 

 chrysalis. The caterpillar is abundant in 

 August and September, the Moth in June. 

 (The scientific name is Bombyx Rubi.) 



96. The Oak Eggar (M;.1e) (Bombyx Quercus). 



96. THE OAK EGGAR. Male deep maho- 

 gany-brown, all four wings having beyond the 

 mi '.die a broad transverse bar of bright ful- 

 vous ; the margin of the bar nearest the body 

 is clear and well defined ; its outer margin 

 shades off gradually into the dark brown ; 

 between this bar and the base of the wing is a 

 pure white spot : head, thorax, and body ma- 

 hogany-brown above, fulvous beneath : the 

 female is larger than the male, and the colour 

 fulvous, the bar being indistinct and narrow. 

 The caterpillar feeds on a number of plants 

 and shrubs, particularly whitethorn ; when 

 young it is brown, with bright yellow mark- 

 ings along the middle of its back ; when full- 



