THE LACKEY 59 



PLATE XXXI 



THE LACKEY (i and 2) 



If you look at the twigs of apple trees during 

 the winter time you will sometimes find that 

 they are surrounded by bands of tiny greyish- 

 white eggs, most neatly arranged in rows, which 

 look just like tiny bracelets. These are the eggs 

 of the Lackey Moth, and when they hatch a 

 number of pretty little caterpillars make their 

 appearance, and at once set to work to spin a 

 big silken web among the leaves, in which they 

 live. They are rather hairy, and have blue-grey 

 heads with two black spots which look just like 

 eyes, and bodies striped with white, and blue, 

 and red, and yellow. And sometimes they are 

 so plentiful that they strip whole branches, and 

 even whole trees, of their leaves. When they are 

 fully grown they spin yellow cocoons, in which 

 a quantity of dust that looks just like powdered 

 sulphur is mixed up, and change to smooth brown 

 chrysalids, out of which the moths are hatched 

 in July. 



Lackey moths vary a good deal in colour, for 

 some are light yellow, and some are dark yellow, 

 and some are pale brown, and some are reddish- 

 brown. Indeed, you may often catch six or eight 

 of these moths, one after the other, and find that 

 no two of them are quite alike. 



