MARCH MOTH. 
77 
March Moth. Anisopteryx cescularia, Schiff. 
March Moth ; winged male, wingless female, and band of eggs. 
This moth has been little, if at all, reported amongst the regularly 
recurring orchard pests, although it is a common kind, until last year 
(1889), when it was observed laying its bands of down-embedded eggs 
at the end of March (specimens sent me on the 29th) on Plum twigs 
at the Dimsdale Fruit Farm, Westerham, Kent. The caterpillars are 
“ loopers,” and of light or clouded green. If the caterpillar pests that 
appear in April were carefully examined, probably those of the March 
Moth would be found to be largely present amongst those commonly 
classed all together as those of Winter Moth, and their presence be 
found to be one amongst various reasons why even the most careful 
sticky-banding in autumn is not a perfect remedy for looper-attack. 
The female March Moths are distinguishable by being apparently quite 
wingless, with silky coats, brownish above, shading to grey below, and 
furnished with a dark pencil of hairs at the end of the tail, with which 
they cover their bands of eggs. 
The only available means of prevention for this attack appear to be 
“ sticky-banding” as for Winter Moths, but applied about the middle 
of March; also subsequently (about the end of March) looking for the 
rings of down-covered eggs at the end of small shoots or twigs, and 
cutting these off, where in reach , and destroying them. Also, as the 
chrysalids are considered to lie in their loose webs during winter, 
either on or in the ground, this is certainly a case in which stirring 
the surface during winter would be likely to do a great deal of good.* 
The ordinary orchard moth attacks have been so fully and 
frequently entered on before that there is no occasion to repeat the 
observations. Amongst the most noticeable of them are damage from 
the brown and yellow “looper ” caterpillars of the Mottled Umber Moth. 
Also from the gaily-striped orange, blue and black, somewhat large 
hairy caterpillars of the Lackey Moth, and the small greyish or 
white, or lead-colour (according to age or variety), spotted with black, 
of the “Small Ermine” or Small Apple Ermine Moths—these kinds 
being web-nest- or tent-making caterpillars. The large “ blue-head ” 
caterpillar of the Figure-of-8 Moth is another orchard pest, easily 
* For account at length of appearance and habits of March Moth, see 13th 
Report on Injurious Insects, by Ed. 
