78 
ORCHARD MOTH CATERPILLARS. 
distinguishable by its large size, being about two inches long when full 
grown ; by its greenish colour above, with a yellow stripe along the back 
and one on each side ; by its yellow-green colour below; and by its 
black spots; also, frequently, from the bluish tint of its head, from 
which the caterpillar takes its name. Figures and descriptions of 
these have been given in previous Reports. 
There is, however, another kind of caterpillar, that of the Common 
Vapourer Moth, Orgyia antiqua scientifically, which has a capacity for 
doing excessive damage to leafage, but also (from the peculiarity of its 
habits) may be easily kept in check on moderate-sized trees. The 
male moth is of the size figured, the body and head brown, wings 
chestnut-brown, the fore wings patterned with darker bands, and with 
a white somewhat kidney-shaped mark on each. The female is grey, 
and almost wingless, and does not quit the immediate neighbourhood 
of the web-cocoon, from the chrysalis within which she has developed. 
Orgyia antiqua. 
Caterpillar (after Taschenberg); male moth; female moth, with abortive wings. 
The life-history is for the female when she comes out from the 
chrysalis to creep to the outside of the web-cocoon ; their pairing takes 
place, and very soon after she begins to deposit her eggs on the 
cocoon, and near it, and dies. The accompanying figures, drawn from 
life, show the cocoon covered with eggs, and also a cocoon torn partly 
open to show the brownish or dusky yellow chrysalis lying within. 
These fine caterpillars, which are stated to vary in length from 
about an inch and a quarter to two inches, when full grown, are dark 
grey, spotted with small red tubercles, and easily distinguishable by 
having four large tufts of yellowish or brownish hairs on the back, and 
also five pencils or bunches of long, dark, pin-lieaded hairs, disposed— 
one on each side behind the head, pointing forwards ; one on each side 
of the fifth segment; and one on the back of the penultimate segment, 
forming a sort of tail-like appendage. By these characteristics the 
caterpillars are easily known from shortly after hatching. They appear 
to feed on almost all kinds of leafage, not only of orchard trees, but of 
Hawthorn, Sloe, and of Roses and other garden plants. 
When full-fed, which may be from May to August, they spin their 
cocoons mixed with hairs on the twigs amongst the remains of the ^ 
leaves on which they have been feeding, or on trunks of trees or 
