278 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



drinking the sap which flowed in their little 

 tunnels." As the caterpillars grow older and 

 larger, they burrow downwards head foremost, 

 and make their way slowly but regularly in 

 the same direction, until eventually they enter 

 the root, in the very centre of which they 

 excavate a circular gallery at least half an 

 inch in diameter : the presence of a cater- 

 pillar in the root is made apparent by the 

 drooping or sickly appearance of the plant on 

 which its destructive powers are being exer- 

 cised. Removed from its retreat, an operation 

 which requires cai-e, since the slightest 

 fracture of the skin is fatal, it neither feigns 

 death nor rolls in a ring, but crawls slowly 

 and deliberately into some dark recess, and 

 embraces the first opportunity of concealing 

 itself in the stem or root of the food-plant. I 

 need, perhaps, scarcely say that the plant must 

 be pulled up and the stem carefully split 

 open until the interior of the root is exposed. 

 The head is very glabrous and is porrected in 

 crawling, but when the caterpillar is perfectly 

 quiescent, it is nearly withdrawn into the 

 second segment : the body is uniformly cylin- 

 drical, and has a conspicuous corneous plate 

 on the back of the second, and another on 

 the back of the thirteenth segment : on the 

 twelfth segment are three minor corneous 

 plates arranged transversely : the colour of 

 the head and corneous plates is testaceous 

 brown ; the body is dingy flesh-coloured, and 

 rather shining, and has anumberof dark brown 

 dots on every segment ; these dots form a 

 transverse series on the backs of the third and 

 fourth segments ; they are four in number on 

 the back of the following segments, from the 

 fifth to the eleventh, both inclusive ; the 

 twelfth has but two dorsal dots in addition to 

 the three corneous plates already mentioned ; 

 on each side of each segment are four such 

 dots, and within the area bounded by these 

 four dots is a white spiracle margined with 

 black, and there is one other such dot on each 

 side of each segment at the base of each leg 

 and clasper ; every dot emits a minute hair ; 

 on the fifth, sixth, eleventh, and twelfth seg- 

 ments are numerous smaller dots of the same 

 colour, and these are arranged in a transverse 



series : the legs and claspers are concolorous 

 with the body. 



The CATERPILLAR is full-fed about the mid- 

 dle of August, when it makes an aperture in 

 the side of the root, and leaves its domicile for 

 ever ; it now wanders a considerable distance 

 from its food-plant, sometimes on the surface 

 of the ground, but I think generally beneath 

 the surface : this certainly was the case with 

 those I had in confinement, which were pro- 

 vided with loose light earth, in which they 

 could have burrowed without difficulty ; and 

 having placed a satisfactory space between its 

 present resting-place and its quondam home, 

 it makes a rude cell in the earth, and without 

 the slightest apology for a cocoon, changes to 

 a smooth dark brown CHRYSALIS, the terminal 

 or anal segment of which is rather long and 

 slender, and is furnished with two long and 

 sharp spines. 



Both sexes of the MOTH leave the chrysalis 

 state in October, and the female is impreg- 

 nated, after which, it may be presumed, the 

 male dies, for he certainly disappears ; but 

 the females hybernate, passing the winter 

 under stones, and may be found motionless and 

 semi-dormant during the coldest weather : 

 the entomologist has often found it a finger- 

 aching and laborious task to remove the heaps 

 of stones, one by one, in the hope of finding 

 an occasional prize, and it may not be quite 

 out of place to remark that the dense furry 

 clothing of the moth seems especially adapted 

 for its protection and comfort under such 

 adverse conditions. It has been found both 

 in the north and south of England, Yorkshire, 

 Lancashire, Devonshire, and the Isle of Wight. 

 The Rev. Job Johnson says he took the female 

 at the blossoms of the sallow. Mr. Birchall 

 informs us it is common at Howth, in Ireland. 

 (The scientific name is Dasypolia Templi.) 



Obs. 1. The genus Dasypolia, instituted 

 for the reception of this single species by 

 M. Guenee, who was unacquainted with its 

 economy, is placed by that eminent lepidop- 

 terist between Polia and Epunda; but having 

 been most obligingly furnished, by a friend, 

 with all the materials for a life-history of the 

 species, and its interesting economy having 



