178 Lepidojptera Feeding on Ferns. 



LEPIDOPTERA FEEDING ON FERNS. 



BY M. G. CAMPBELL. 



All along the shady side of my small garden, situated in the 

 heart of the town, I have planted British ferns. Trees and a 

 low wall screen them from the sun, as well as shelter them 

 from wind. Early in the summer before last, I observed one 

 of my lady ferns, Athyrium jilix-foemina, partially eaten by 

 some insect. I searched for the depredator without success, 

 until after giving the whole plant a thorough shaking, when 

 two or three larvas of the Great Tiger Moth, Arctia caja, fell 

 to the ground. I took up two of them, and confined them in 

 a box, covering it with green gauze, and there I fed them, not 

 with my ferns though. I gave them what I knew they would 

 eat, namely common plantain, Plantago 'major, as, accustomed 

 for years to feed large numbers of lepidopterous insects, noc- 

 turnal and diurnal, the little furry-coated gentleman was no 

 stranger to me ; but, as my habit is, I like to prove every- 

 thing for the satisfaction of others as well as myself. 



In this cage they were by no means unhappy. They feasted 

 on the fresh food supplied to them twice daily, increased in 

 size, performed their due moults, changed into the pupa state 

 when fully grown, and eventually evolved perfect imagoes of 

 the Arctia caja, their gorgeous wings even more brilliantly 

 coloured than usually found when roaming free, because they 

 had been sheltered from the effects of wind and rain, and those 

 wings are now displayed in one of the drawers of my cabinet, 

 pinned on to its cork lining. 



But what of my ferns all this time ? After securing the 

 first intruders, I did not again examine my ferns for three or 

 four days, imagining I had all the mischief-makers in safe 

 custody. But when about the fourth or fifth morning I went 

 to look at them again, what was my consternation to find that 

 my Athyriums, which had but a week before looked so lovely 

 in the tender green of their lacy beauty, were completely eaten 

 away, all but the primary rachis, and the branchlets, or 

 secondary rachids issuing from it, which presented the appear- 

 ance of so many dry threads, almost every atom of the soft, 

 green, leafy portion of the plant being stript from it. Several 

 fronds of a Lastrea jilix-mas, which stood near, had also paid 

 tribute. On the small bit which remained of the laminar portion 

 several of the " Woolly-bears" were busily at work. I shook 

 the ferns well, sweeping them in all directions with my hand, 

 and the caterpillars fell from them in multitudes. They re- 

 minded me of nothing less than the plagues of Egypt. Morning 



