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 ahove 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 CATERPILLARS emerge in four- 

 teen 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 connected 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 segments 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 

 develope 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 ( Ulmm campestris}, lime ( Tiliaeuropaa), 

 hazel (Corylm avelland), 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 perfect 

 shower : they are extremely flaccid, and never 

 roll in a ring, but almost immediately on re- 

 gaining 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 th 

 body ; it is covered with crowded but minut 

 punctures, and with fine silky hairs; the bod 

 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. Thi 

 colour of the head is black, with a bright 

 yellow mark on the face in the form of a letter 

 V reversed : the base of the antennal papillfe 

 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, alternating 

 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 conspicuous ; 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 



y 



