Volume I Part 7 (1/2)

PUSS MOTH.

_Egg, natural size and enlarged; caterpillars, chrysalis and coc.o.o.n._

{65} The caterpillars feed on beech, and also occasionally on birch, oak, hazel, and some fruit trees, and may be found from July to September.

The chrysalis, which is enclosed in a tightly woven coc.o.o.n {66} spun up between leaves, usually dead ones, is blackish brown with a violet bloom upon it.

The moths are on the wing in May and June in an early season, but not until June and July in a backward one. They may be sometimes found resting by day on the stems of small trees or even bushes. ”In fact, anything,” Mr.

Holland says, ”which stands upright in a beech wood will do, so that it is not too large.” The blackish form of the moth is so like a knot on a stem that it is easily overlooked. There is sometimes a second emergence in August. Possibly those caterpillars found during the latter part of September in some favourable years are from eggs deposited by moths emerging in early August, and the offspring of May parents.

The species is widely distributed, but not often common, over the Midland, Southern, and Eastern Counties of England. It seems to flourish chiefly in beech woods, and is perhaps more frequent in parts of Berks.h.i.+re, Bucks, and Oxfords.h.i.+re, than elsewhere, but it is not uncommon in some seasons in the New Forest. It has been reported from Swansea in Wales, and once from Selby, Yorks.h.i.+re. In Ireland it is exceedingly rare, and is not known to occur in Scotland. The range abroad extends through Central Europe, northward to Sweden, southward to Spain and Portugal, and eastward to Armenia, Ussuri, and j.a.pan.

THE DUSKY MARBLED BROWN (_Gluphisia crenata_).

Only three authenticated British examples are known of this dingy grey-brown moth (Plate 28, Fig. 3). The earliest intimation we have of the occurrence of this species in England is the following record by the late Mr. Henry Doubleday in the _Entomologist_, vol. i. p. 156: ”_Chaonia crenata._ The first British specimen of this insect was taken in Ongar Park Wood, in June, 1839; a second in the same place, in June of the present year. Both specimens were females.” The locality mentioned in the foregoing notice which was penned July 10th, 1841, is in the County of Ess.e.x. At a meeting of the Entomological Society of London held in April, 1854, the Rev. Joseph Greene exhibited a specimen that he had reared from a caterpillar obtained from a poplar near Halton, in Bucks, August, 1853.

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Pl. 26.

LOBSTER MOTH.

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Pl. 27.

LOBSTER MOTH.

_Egg, enlarged, caterpillars, chrysalis and coc.o.o.n._

{67} According to Buckler the caterpillar is pale green, with a thin whitish line down the middle of the back, a broader yellow line on each side, and some reddish spots on the front and hind rings of the body; the spiracles are black. It spins a somewhat oval-shaped coc.o.o.n between two poplar leaves, and therein turns to a glossy blackish brown chrysalis.

Abroad the species is found in Central Europe, North Italy, North-western Russia, Southern Norway, and also in Amurland and Ussuri. There are said to be two broods on the continent, one emergence of moths taking place in April and the other in June or July.

THE MARBLED BROWN (_Drymonia trimacula_).

Somewhat similar to the next species, but the fore wings are generally whiter; the cross lines are not so straight, and there is no black crescent above the centre of the wings (Plate 28, Fig. 1).

The caterpillar is green, with two yellow lines on the back, and a yellow one along the spiracles, the latter edged above with reddish. It feeds on oak, and may be found from July to September; stated to hide by day in the c.h.i.n.ks of the bark. The reddish brown chrysalis is enclosed in a coc.o.o.n of earth held together with silk. It may be searched for at the roots of gra.s.s, etc., around the foot of oak trees growing in parks or in the more open parts of woods. The moth appears in May.

Although nowhere really common, it seems to occur pretty generally over the southern portion of England, and as far north {68} as Derbys.h.i.+re and Staffords.h.i.+re. Farther north, and in Wales and Scotland, it has been rarely met with. Recorded by Birchall to be not uncommon at Killarney; but Kane states that he has never seen an Irish specimen.

The species occurs locally throughout Central Europe, also in Transylvania, Northern and Central Italy, and Eastern Armenia. In Ussuri, and j.a.pan, it is represented by the form _dodonides_, Staud.

THE LUNAR MARBLED BROWN (_Drymonia chaonia_).

The fore wings of this moth (Plate 28, Fig. 2) are dark fuscous, almost blackish, a short white line near the base; the central third is white clouded with the ground colour and limited by white edged black wavy lines; a black crescent just above the centre of the wing. Hind wings smoky grey with a pale curved line. The egg, which is bluish white in colour, is of the usual Notodont shape. Caterpillar green, merging into bluish-green on the back; the lines are pale yellow, or creamy white, that along the black margined spiracles is rather broad and is sometimes tinged with reddish on the three front rings. Head green, mouth marked with pale yellow. Feeds in June, July, and August on oak. From about a dozen eggs that I had in May, 1907, the caterpillars hatched on the 13th of the month. Only one got through safely to the chrysalis stage which it reached at the end of June.

On June 26th some half-grown and smaller caterpillars were received from the New Forest, only one of these was seen on July 19th, but it was then nearly full grown and appeared to be quite healthy, and others had pupated or died.

The chrysalis is deep red brown, enclosed in a silken coc.o.o.n covered with particles of earth; generally found at the roots of isolated oak trees (Plate 29, Figs. 1, 1a).

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Pl. 28.

1. MARBLED BROWN MOTH.