DAMAGE CAUSED BY ANIMALS. 207 



The Lackey Moth, Bombyx (Gastropacha) neustria. The span of 

 the wings of this moth is about 1/2 to 1/6 inches. Its body and 

 upper wings vary from yellow to reddish-brown, with broad 

 transverse band having lighter edges ; the lower wings are some- 

 what lighter in colour, and have a faint darker band across their 

 middle. The slightly-haired caterpillar attains a length of 1/8 

 inches, is alternately striped light blue, reddish-brown, and white 

 like the pattern of a lackey's waistcoat ; its head is pale blue, with 

 two black spots. 



The moths swarm in July and August towards the evening. 

 After impregnation the female deposits her 300 to 400 brownish - 

 grey ova in the shape of a close band round twigs and small 

 branches of fruit-trees and Oaks principally, but also on Elm, 

 Hornbeam, Poplars, and Willows. About the end of April or 

 the beginning of May the young caterpillars appear, and begin to 

 feed on buds and leaves, living at first in communities inside 

 nests until they are full-grown. They enter the chrysalid stage 

 about the end of June, but before doing so break up their 

 colonies, and betake themselves individually to pupal rest between 

 leaves or in the inequalities of the bark, to which they attach 

 themselves with a few loosely spun threads. 



As the Lackey-moth attacks fruit-trees for the most part, 

 active measures can easily be taken to destroy the clusters 

 of ova and the caterpillars' nests in orchards ; but annihilative 

 measures are hardly applicable in the case of lofty forest trees. 



The Gipsy Moth or Brown Arches, Bombyx (Liparis) dispar 

 (vide Plate III. fig. 19). There is, as the name implies, a great 

 disparity between the sizes of the male and the female moths. 

 The wings of the female have a span of 24 to 2 '6 inches, whilst 

 that of the male does not exceed 1/6 to 1/8 inches. The wings of 

 the female are of a brownish-white colour, with darker, zigzag 

 arched lines, and with brownish-grey down near the extremity, 

 whilst those of the male are dark greyish-brown, with similar zigzag 

 arched markings ; both have dark-tipped edgings, and in both 

 the lower pair of wings are of a paler colour with fainter markings. 

 The 16-footed caterpillar, which attains a length of two inches, 

 has a large head, is dirty grey along the back, and yellowish-grey 

 on the sides and under part, with small black dots on the skin, 

 and having a white line down the ridge of its back. On each side 

 of this central line it has a row of warts that are blue on the 



