THE OAK-EGGAE. 44 1 



So plentiful are these egg-groups that, were it uot for the 

 presence of sundry little birds, which find much of their 

 winter's nourishment in the eggs of various Lepidoptera, we 

 should be soon overrun with Vapourer Moths, and our trees and 

 hedges would sulFer sadly. The female moths themselves, 

 being utterly unable to escape, and not seeming able even to 

 crawl beyond the limits of the pupal web, also fall victims to 

 the birds in no small number. 



The caterpillar is shown at Fig. b of the same Woodcut, and 

 is a very pretty one. Its colours are exceedingly variable, but 

 it is always furnished with a brush-like tuft of yellow hairs on 

 the back of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth segments, 

 two long black tufts on the second segment, directed forwards, 

 and a single similar tuft on the last segment but one, directed 

 backwards. There is scarcely a tree or shrub on which this 

 strange-looking caterpillar will wot feed. 



On Plate XV. Fig. 2 is seen the male Oak-eggar Moth 

 (Bombyx or Lasiocavipa quercus). This well-known insect 

 belongs to another family, the Bombycidie, in which the cater- 

 pillars are mostly hairy, the pupa smooth, and the perfect in- 

 sect large and stout-bodied, and coloured with various shades 

 of browTi or grey. The smoot-h pupa at once distinguishes this 

 insect from the last. 



Although the colours of this insect are not brilliant, the 

 Moth is a very handsome one, the simple colouring of its wings 

 being well contrasted. The male has the wings rich warm 

 chestnut, and across each of them is drawn a slightly waved 

 yellowish band. Rather towards the base of the disc there is a 

 white spot very clearly marked. His antenna are deeply and 

 doubly feathered. The female is much larger, but not nearly 

 so handsome, the colour being mostly yellow with the baud pale 

 and undefined. 



The chief interest of this moth lies in its preparatory stages. 

 The caterpillar is a very fine one, and remarkable for its change 

 in appearance when it bends its body. The ground colour of 

 this larva is deep velvety-black, very thickly covered with rich 

 brown hairs. When the caterpillar is straight it appears to be 

 uniformly brown, but when it curves the body, the velvet-black 

 appears between the segments and gives a very bold and effec- 



