LASIOCAMPA QUERCUS. 91 



come early from their winter - quarters, as he found several when 

 beating leafless hawthorn hedges for females of Hybernia rupica- 

 praria. The larvae are found in the Reading district by searching 

 whitethorn hedges in the daytime ; but at St. Helen's, in the 

 Isle of Wight, in 1895, they were found feeding on willow and broom 

 by the river Yar, few to be seen by day, but up and feeding in great 

 plenty after dusk (Holland). The larvae sun themselves on the 

 bramble in Folkestone Warren in early June (Pickett). The peculiar 

 way in which the larvae jerk themselves from side to side if one 

 suddenly shouts or whistles near them is perhaps worthy of note, 

 and Andrews states that the larvae he reared during the autumn and 

 winter of 1900 — 1901, were supplied with a piece of wadding sopped 

 with water, in which they would fasten their jaws and draw in the 

 liquid after the manner of cows (E. M. M., xxxvii., p. 125). 

 Ransom observes that the young larva can suspend itself by a thread 

 as soon as hatched, and undergoes the first moult when 12 days 

 old. We have already noted that it is the larval habit of true L. 

 quercus to hybernate as a small larva, to feed up in spring, to 

 pupate in June and early July, the imagines emerging in July 

 and August ; whilst the callunae larval habit is to feed from June, 

 to hybernate as a rather large larva, then to feed on until the 

 following July and August, to hybernate a second winter as a pupa, 

 and, finally, for the imagines to emerge in May and June of the 

 following year. The normal quercus larval habit, however, is some- 

 times modified in undoubted larvae of L. quercus, so as to assume 

 the callunae larval habit, i.e., occasional larvae of true querciis feed 

 on until August and pupate late, hybernating a second winter as 

 pupae, and producing imagines the following year. Such instances ap- 

 pear often to be in direct response to unsatisfactory weather conditions, 

 e.g., the inclement summer and autumn of 1891 resulted in the 

 larvae of L. quercus, in its most southern British localities, going on 

 feeding until September and October, when they pupated, and pro- 

 duced imagines in July, 1892, a year later than their normal 

 time, but others are not to be so explained, e.g., the single 

 example noted by Andrews in his forced brood (supra'). 

 Occasionally only a single individual of a whole brood will develop 

 this habit. The following records are interesting as illustrating this 

 particular phenomenon: At Ashbourne, eggs laid August 13th, 



1855, hatched September 5 th, fed slightly through the winter, 

 pupated from June 23rd, 1856, first imago emerged August 1st, 



1856, whilst others went over the winter 1856 — 1857 in the pupal 

 stage, emerging in the summer of the latter year (Lighton); larva 

 found in May in Suffolk, then z\ inches long, with rusty hairs and 

 lilac rings, spun up in August, emerged the following June (Greene); 

 larva from Bisterne pupated July 28th, went over the winter, emerging 

 the next year, although another obtained at the same time and place 

 pupated June 12th, and emerged July 28th of same year (Substitute, 

 p. 29) ; larvae and pupae common in hedgerows at Skipwith, but some 

 of the pupae go over one winter to emerge the next year (Ash) ; in the 

 southern counties, e.g., Hants, Berks and Oxon, the number of L. 

 quercus larvae that feed slowly, pupate in autumn, and go over the 

 winter as pupae to emerge next year is small ; in the New 

 Forest, on the contrary, the number is greater, and increases as one 



