THE YOUNG NATUEA.LIST. 



41 



season, with our visit to the Bog, and 

 determined to spend the next day on 

 Strensell Common, which we did to our 

 mutual enjoyment. Mr. Prest accompanied 

 us, but owing to bad health had to leave 

 the common and seek rest in the little inn. 

 Among my captures on the common and 

 in the wood adjoining I numbered a fine 

 adder and a blind-worm, the latter, Mr. 

 Prest said, had never been found there 

 before. The round-leaved sundew grows 

 on this common in the utmost profusion 

 and must be a very beautiful sight in the 

 full season. We were so well pleased with 

 our visit both to the Bog and the Common 

 that we immediately decided, as we always 

 do when we find a good place, to go again. 

 We have to thank Mr. Prest for having 

 so kindly directed us to the various good 

 collecting grounds in the district, and for 

 giving us all the information upon which 

 depended our success. 



We finished our visit by a walk through 

 Messrs. Backhouses' grounds and green- 

 houses — itself a treat, — and found a very 

 ready guide in Mr. Wilson, and then 

 we walked to Tadcastle, collecting on the 

 way, from whence we took the train for 

 "home, sweet home." 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



By John E. Robson. 



ERIOGASTER LANESTRIS. 



The Small Eggar. 



If marked peculiarities of habit make an 

 insect interesting, this species should be 

 one of those most attractive to a beginner, 

 and even an advanced student may fail to 

 explain the why and wherefore of some of 

 its characteristics. In the larva state it is 

 more gregarious than any other British 

 species of Macro-Lepidoptera. Several 



others, when young, spin a web to form a 

 tent to which they may retire for the night 

 or for their winter sleep ; but the Small 

 Eggar does so till full-grown, and cannot be 

 removed from it w 7 ith any certainty of rear- 

 ing it. The eggs are laid in batches on haw- 

 thorn, blackthorn, &c, and the young larvae 

 as soon as they emerge begin to devour the 

 I leaves, spinning a silken thread wherever 

 they move about. They do not go any 

 further than is necessary to obtain food and 

 completely strip the portion nearest them. 

 As they grow they have to travel further in 

 I search of food, and still spinning a web as 

 I they move, the tent, or nest, as it is same- 

 j times called, increases in size until it assumes 

 , considerable dimensions as the larva? 

 move back and forward to their food. 

 When not feeding they always retire to the 

 central part of their domicile, either to rest 

 I or change their skin. At the outer portions 

 of the web the}- may be found feeding, and 

 ! in the inner recesses much larger numbers 

 are resting side by side or even across each 

 other's bodies. When full fed they wander 

 off alone and spin their cocoons apart. In 

 the perfect state they have an equally strik- 

 ing characteristic. The emergence from the 

 cocoon takes place in the month of Febru- 

 ary, and as that is a stormy and inclement 

 time of the year, it might easily happen 

 for the entire race to be destroyed by severe 

 weather. But the species is so perfectly 

 adapted for its particular season that there 

 is not the slightest risk of it being extermi- 

 nated in this way. Instead of the whole of 

 one brood emerging in the February follow- 

 ing their spinning up, only a small portion 

 does so, and the others remain in their 

 cocoons for another season or more, con- 

 tinuing to emerge, a few each succeeding 

 February, for five or six years, or even more, 

 some of them having been known to remain 

 in pupa as long as ten years and then 

 emerge. Nor is there any difference in the 

 appearance of those that emerge the first 



