BRITISH MOTHS 



PCECILOCAMPA*, Stephens. (DIAPHONE, pars, Hubner.) 



The wings in this genus are rather elongate and sub-diaphanous, but the abdomen is not furnished with a 

 woolly mass at the tip. The anteniue in tlie males are strongly bipectinated, and of nearly equal breadth to the 

 tip. The palpi arc extremely minute. Tlic larvfe are solitary in their liabits, rather depressed, and but slightly 

 pilose. They form a coriaceous suboval cocoon of silk at a little depth under ground. 



SPECIES 1.— POECILOCAMPA POPULl. Plate X., Fig. 7, 8. 



S\NONyMEs. — Phalwna {B.) Popitli, Linnaeus; Donovan 9, pi. I Pfecilocampa Populi^ Stephens; Wood, Ind. Ent., pi. G, f. 46. 

 30"; Wilkes, pi. 48 ; Albin, pi. 85. | Dinphoue Populi, Illibner, Vcrz. bck. Scbmett. 



The fore wings vary from 1^ to ]^ in expansion, and are of a purplish-brown hue, with the base and the 

 slender inner margin brunneous, a buff stripe very much curved near the base, which does not extend to the 

 inner margin, and a second one of the same colour considerably undulated beyond the middle ; the fringe 

 alternately grey and brown ; the hind wings paler, with a slightly defined pale central stripe. The thorax 

 dark brown, but pale in front. 



The caterpillar is pale ashy, with the back darker coloured, each segment with two pairs of red spots. It 

 is found in June on poplar trees. Tlie perfect insect, which is rather uncommon (although found in many 

 distant parts of the country) makes its appearance in December ; when, as Mr. Haworth remarks, it and 

 several other winter moths form an essential part of the food of our soft-billed birds. 



GLISIOCAMPA, Curtis. (MALACOSOMA, Hbbner.) 



This genus receives its systematic name on account of the gregarious habits of the caterpillars, which reside 

 in a common tent or web ; and the species are termed lacqueys, from the red, blue, white, and black colours of 

 the caterpillars, arranged in stripes like the dress of a footman. The abdomen is not tufted in the females ; the 

 antenna of the males are short, recurved, strongly bipectinated in the males, and slightly in the females ; the 

 palpi minute and three-jointed. The wings are small in the males, acute at the tip, and not diaphanous. The 

 caterpillars construct a loose silken cocoon suffused with a fine powder, having previously left the general web. 

 The female has the instinct to arrange her eggs in an elegant spiral coil round the young branches of fruit-trees, 

 on which the larvas feed, often occasioning great injury to them. 



SPECIES 1.— CLISIOCAMPA CASTRENSIS. Plate X., Fig. 9, 10. 



Synonvmes. — PlialiEua {^Bombyx) castrensis, Liunceus; HUbner, 

 Bomb., fig. 177, 180. 



C/isiocampa castrensis, Curtis, Brit. Eut., pi. 229 ; .Stephens, 111. 

 Il.-iust., jilate 13, fig. 2 ; Wood, Ind. Ent., t. C, fig. 49 ,ind 49. 

 Ma/acosonia castrensis, Hiibuer, Verz. bek. Schm. 



The fore wings when expanded measure from 1^ to 1|- inches, those of the male being of a pale straw colour, 

 with two dull castaneous bars running across the middle of the wings, the inner one incurved towards tlie base 



* Derived from the Greek, in allusion to the variegated colouis of tlie caterpilla 



