220 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



truncate heads and closely convolute wings 

 giving each pair the appearance of a single 

 piece of dead and dried stick. As soon as 

 they separate the EGGS are laid in a patch 

 of thirty to sixty, mostly on the upper side 

 of a leaf ; they are convex above and flat 

 beneath, of a china-white colour above, and 

 smoke-colour beneath, and having, in the 

 middle of the convex portion, a very 

 conspicuous black dot ; the young CATER- 

 PILLARS emerge in fourteen days, and, after 

 eating a portion of the egg-shell around the 

 point of emergence, they feed in company 

 on the upper cuticle and the parenchyma of 

 the leaf, leaving the veins entire and con- 

 nected by the lower cuticle : they have 

 then large shining black heads, and much 

 narrower yellow bodies beset with long soft 

 hairs, and adorned with series of black spots 

 or blotches, of which the medio-dorsal series 

 is by far the most conspicuous, the lateral 

 series consisting of minute and incon- 

 spicuous spots ; the dorsal surface of the 

 second segment as well as the whole of the 

 thirteenth segment is black, as are also the 

 anal claspers, which are constantly elevated, 

 rarely touching the leaf on which the little 

 creatures are standing : after eight days 

 they undergo the first moult, and then 

 separate into little companies of six, eight, 

 or ten, each company ascending to the tip 

 of a leaf, and feeding at the edge in the 

 usual manner ; but when resting, each little 

 company huddles together on the surface of 

 the leaf, reposing side by side with the anal 

 claspers elevated : the head is now still 

 more largely developed, much broader than 

 the body, and shining black ; the dorsal 

 surface of the second and thirteenth seg- 

 ments is still black ; after a second moult, 

 the head is less conspicuously large, and 

 the body more variegated : as the caterpillar 

 continues to grow, the markings develop 

 themselves, and the head and body become 

 covered with soft, flexible, and rather longish 

 hairs. The caterpillars are full-fed towards 

 the end of July, and are readily found by 

 the devastation they cause : each brood 

 fixes on some topmost outside branch of 

 elm ( TJlmus campestris) l\mc(Tiliaeuropfea), 

 hazel (Corylus avellana), or other tree (for 

 this species appears a very general feeder), 



and, completely stripping off the foliage, 

 leaves the twigs as bare as in the depth of 

 winter : these voracious colonies are seldom 

 within reach of the hand, but if a stick be 

 thrown up the caterpillars descend in a per- 

 fect shower : they are extremely flaccid, and 

 never roll in a ring, but almost immediately 

 on regaining their legs turn their heads 

 towards the trunk of the tree whence they 

 have been shaken, and reascend, traversing 

 the branches and twigs until they attain an 

 elevation and exposure satisfactory to their 

 minds. The head of the full-fed caterpillar 

 is prone, exserted, and of nearly the same 

 width as the body ; it is covered with 

 crowded but minute punctures, and with 

 fine silky hairs ; the body is uniformly 

 cylindrical, clothed with very fine silky 

 hairs, and having a glabrous corneous plate 

 on the thirteenth segment, which decreases 

 in size after each moult. The colour of the 

 head is black, with a bright yellow mark 

 on the face in the form of a letter V re- 

 versed : the base of the antenal papillae is 

 also yellow : the colour of the body is dull 

 yellow, with a transverse band about the 

 middle of each segment of a deeper colour, 

 almost orange ; and on each side, alternat- 

 ing with these orange bands, which occupy 

 the verrucose portions of the surface already 

 noticed, is a series of obscure and ill-defined 

 markings, almost white ; there are also nine 

 longitudinal black stripes extending from 

 the third to the twelfth segment, both 

 inclusive ; these stripes are interrupted 

 throughout by small circular yellowish 

 dots, each of which has a minute central 

 black dot, emitting a white hair ; of these 

 nine stripes the medio-dorsal is somewhat 

 the broadest, and decidedly the most con- 

 spicuous ; between the third and fourth 

 lateral stripes are the intensely black 

 spiracles ; there is also a glabrous corneous 

 black plate occupying the anal flap; the 

 legs are intensely black and shining, and 

 have dull blackish markings above their 

 base ; the ventral claspers have a black 

 shining exterior corneous plate, and smoke- 

 coloured markings on the outer surface ; 

 the anal claspers are black and still elevated 

 when at rest ; the belly is yellow, with two 

 series of black blotches between the fourth 



