LASIOCAMPA QUERCUS. 77 



abundant throughout the summer and autumn, yet the young ones are rarely 

 seen during this part of the year ; the larva? appear in great profusion in Hoy 

 in some years, but have not yet been found in the Shetlands (McArthur); as observed 

 in Argyllshire the insect takes two years to mature, commencing its existence about 

 July ist in the oval state ; the larvae emerge from the egg in 24 days, and by the 

 end of autumn are fully an inch long, and then pass their first winter in the larval 

 state resting on heath ; they become full grown larvae in August of the next year, spin 

 their egg-like cocoons and pass the second winter as pupae ; imagines appearing 

 the following year from middle of June to middle of July (Chapman) ; eggs at 

 end of June, on Cannock moors, hatch in 10 or 18 days according to temperature ; 

 larvae hybernate during winter about I \ inches long ; fullfed next year in July and 

 August, and spin up, a few of the early ones emerging in August if weather be 

 favourable, but most going over till the third week in June of the following year 

 (Freer); ? captured at dusk ovipositing whilst flying along a grassy bank between two 

 fields at Pwllheli, July 17th, 1895 ; no heathy ground or moorland near (although the 

 ? is of the callunae form); eggs were laid and hatched, and the larvae fed on willow, 

 bramble, hawthorn, privet, ivy ; they fed right on, pupated before Christmas, 1895, and 

 the imagines began to emerge April 4th, 1896 (Nicholson) ; larvae abundant at Crosby, 

 May 2 1st, 188 1, over- wintered as pupae, and emerged next year (Walker); from the moors 

 about Harrogate young larvae were obtained, these hybernated all the winter, fed up 

 next spring and summer, and pupated in September, went over the winter as pupae, and 

 the imagines emerged following summer (Ridley). Routledge notes that on October 

 1 2th, 1894, an hnago emerged from a pupa of the year, all the other pupae obtained 

 going over, at Carlisle. Larvae on Rhombald's Moor, May 1 7th, 1896, about half-grown ; 

 the larvae at this time closely resemble the twigs of heather on which they rest, and 

 are very difficult to detect ; about 7 p.m. the larvae move up the twigs to feed 

 (Hewett). Sometimes pupae go over two years, making the life cycle occupy three 

 years altogether, e.g., a larva spun up in 1898, went over two winters as 

 pupa, imago emerged June, 1900, at Keswick (Beadle) ; larvae, June 17th, 1883, 

 at Duntroon, 1 1 females and males emerged June 6th — 18th, 1884, the remainder did 

 not emerge till June, 1885 (T. Briggs); larvae of 1879, pupated autumn of 1879, did not 

 produce imagines till June, 188 1 (Lowrey) ; pupae from Ilkley Moor, December, 

 1898, imagines emerged June 6th — 16th, 1899 ; a pair of these copulated June 12th, 

 larvae appeared July 2nd, 13 had spun up by October 12th, 1899, others were then of 

 varying size from one-half inch to fullfed, the small ones hybernated, the larger ones died, 

 whilst of those that pupated 7 emerged June 17th — -July 19th, 1900, the other cocoons 

 contain pupae that are going over a second winter (1900-1901) in the pupal stage; the 

 hybernating larvae spun up in September and October, 1900, and are going over 

 the winter 1 900-1 with the others (Butler). Foodplants. — Practically polvphagous 

 (Chapman), almost all low-growing plants, heather, Sec, on moors (Reid); broom, 

 birch, plum (Pearson) ; blaeberry, bog-myrtle (Gordon) ; Calluna, sallow (Dalglish) ; 

 aspen (Newman) ; oak (White) ; poplar and hawthorn (Elliot) ; bramble (Clarke) ; 

 Hippo phaes rhamno ides (Tutt) ; mountain-ash (Cheesman) ; ivy (Hutchinson) ; privet 

 (Nicholson) ; gorse flowers (Robinson). Habits and Habitat. — The male files by 

 day, especially in the afternoon, the ? immediately after impregnation (Reid) ; males 

 fly strongly in sunshine (Gordon), not only in the sunshine, but also at sunset, whilst 

 the ? s fly very late, several caught on the wing after 10 p.m. (Dalglish) ; males on 

 wing during the hottest part of day, the ? s only at dusk, when oviposition takes place, 

 then, however, their flight is rapid (Day) ; males fly freely over the moorlands at 

 Galashiels in June, assembling freely to the ? s in the evening (Haggart) ; the males 

 fly in the sunshine over the bogs and moors in Ireland, average dates, June 23rd — 27th 

 (Kane) ; newly-emerged females frequently picked up in Glen Mallon, July, 1897, 

 at rest on heather (Daiglish) ; bred a ? callunae on July 2nd, 1897, to which 

 males of typical L. quercus assembled freely at Box worth (Thomhill) ; the males 

 fly by day and the females in June and July at dusk in Cumberland (Routledge). 

 Elliott states that the imago emerges from 8 p.m — 12 p.m., but Hewett says 

 that the majority emerged at York between 1—2.30 p.m., although one male and 

 one female emerged between 7.30 and 9 p.m., and another between 10 p.m. and 

 6 a.m. The males, he adds, assemble most freely between 11.30 and 2 p.m. 

 Edleston observes that the females come out in the early forenoon, and the males fly 

 directly after mid-day. The habitats of this form are not very varied, being almost 

 always moorlands of some form or other, maybe the}' are bleakly exposed, sometimes 

 on mountain sides, at others more or less sheltered by scrubby wood, still callunae 

 is- essentially a moorland form. Thus we have — open moors and hills to about 

 2,000 feet all over central and northern Scotland (Reid) ; on moors and in woods 

 in Moray (Gordon) : on the moors throughout the Rannoch district (G. O. Day) ; 



