MALACOSOMA NEUSTRIA. 553 



around one lamp was nothing unusual, and in the morning they were 

 SAvept up in heaps on the deck and thrown overboard. He states that 

 he has never seen a moth in such numbers, they were simply every- 

 where. Their flight is swift but jerky, and the moth buzzes about 

 with the abdomen turned up. It darts at the light, then drops to the 

 deck where it buzzes helplessly round and round in a circle. This 

 habit is fatal on a wet night as they then get their wings spoilt and 

 clogged by buzzing on the wet deck. The female flies more slowly, 

 and settles oftener. The variation in the size of individuals of the 

 sexes is very great. Eeference has already been made to the wide 

 range in its coloration (anted, p. 550). Fletcher further notes that, 

 at Port Lazaref, in October, 1897, the eggs (arranged in the usual 

 bracelet fashion around a twig) and empty cocoons were very common. 

 Egg-laying. — The well known eggs of this moth are arranged in a 

 close spiral, round a twig, in contact with each other, and really laid 

 upon each other, rather than upon the twig, so that although the 

 micropylar axis is vertical to the twig, and one gets an idea that 

 the eggs are upright, yet they are really flat eggs, with the micropylar 

 axis horizontal. That each egg is laid upon another, and not upon the 

 twig, is shown when the twig shrinks, for the eggs then come off en 

 masse. The first row of eggs laid is really almost horizontally placed, 

 the succeeding ring being laid thereon. The eggs are embedded in a 

 thick liquid gum, which cements them into a bracelet-like ring, leaving, 

 however, the micropyles of the eggs from which the larvae make their 

 escape free. We have already noted (anted, p. 526) Reaumur's account 

 of the glands in which this gum is secreted. Moncreaff states that on 

 the lower part of the abdomen of the female of M. neustria are two 

 pear-shaped glands filled with liquid gum, and as each egg passes 

 these it becomes coated with the cement, which, on exposure to the 

 atmosphere, quickly hardens. It is insoluble in water, and so tenacious 

 that pieces of cardboard secured together by it cannot be separated 

 without tearing. Newman says the cement is not disintegrated by 

 wet, but retains the eggshells in situ for many years. Reaumur gives 

 (Mem., ii., p. 95) a most graphic account of these egg-bracelets. He 

 writes : " Ces nids d'ceufs entourent un jet de poirier, de pommier, 

 de pecher, de prunier, comme les bagues ordinaires entourent les doigts, 

 ou comme les bracelets entourent les bras. lis ressemblent tout-a-fait 

 aux bracelets de grains d'email ; chaque oeuf tient ici lieu d'un de ces 

 grains. II entre depuis 200 jusqu'a 350 oeufs dans chaque bracelet. 

 On ne voit que leur partie superieure dont le contour est rond et blanc ; 

 le milieu est plus brun ; la sommite est toujours marquee par un point 

 noir. Ces grains ou oeufs, qui se touchent seulement par quelques endroits 

 de leur contour, et qui sont presses les uns contre les autres, laissent 

 necessairement entre eux des espaces qui sont remplis par une espece 

 de gomme brune, dure et cassante. La largeur du bracelet est formee 

 par II a 15 rangs, et jusqu'a 17 rangs d'ceufs. lis ne sont pas places 

 precisement sur la circonfcrence d'un cercle, ils sont disposes en tours 

 de spirale, qui quelquefois s'eloignent peu de la figure circulaire." 

 Nordlinger notes that as many as 100 eggs have been counted in one 

 ring, but Dollman states that they do not average more than from 

 100-200. Our calculations come between these numbers, and have 

 fallen between 230 and 300. A batch of eggs from Wicken Fen 

 hatched on March 13th, and continued to do so, a few each day 



