Bombyx Chrysorrhtea. Yellow-Tailed Moth

Its caterpillar usually confines its attacks to the leaves of the white and black thorn, but sometimes spreads to our fruit trees. M. Kollar observes that - "In the day time it sits quietly on a leaf, or on a wall, and suffers itself to be caught in the hand. It has received its name from the posterior part of its body being covered with a round mass of golden yellow hair. Its fore-wings are of a dazzling whiteness, as is also the greater part of its body: only the principal vein of the forewing of the male is brown on the under side, and it has also sometimes a few black dots on its wings.

"At the end of June this moth usually appears, seeks a companion, and continues its species. The female usually lays her eggs on the under side of the leaf, in a small heap or mass, and covers them with hair from her tail. Hence, nothing is seen of the eggs, as they lie in rows under the covering of hair. The number of eggs in the heap amounts to from two to three hundred; they are round, and of a gold colour; when the female has laid her eggs she dies, after having applied all the hair from her tail to form the covering. The caterpillars are usually hatched at the end of July. They have a dirty-yellow appearance, a black head, and a black ring round the neck; they are thickly covered with hair, and have four rows of blackish dots along the back. They change their skins in August. In the middle of September the) cease feeding, and in October they only come out. of their nest in very warm days, when they lie on the outside, but return to the nest in the evening. They become benumbed in November, and even in extreme cold they only become benumbed, and resume their activity when warm weather sets in. Before the buds on the trees have begun to burst in spring, some of the caterpillars come out of their nests and eat the folded leaves.

In the course of a few days they are found in multitudes at the forks of the branches in the side of the tree exposed to the sun." - Kol-lar.

Bombyx Earuleocephala

Figure-of-eight moth. Its caterpillar selects the leaves of the black and white thorn, almond, apricot, and peach, though it will attack those of other trees. Kollar tells us that - "At the time of pupation these caterpillars repair to the stems of the trees, or to walls and hedges, where they make for themselves cases of moss, lime, dust, and small chips of wood, oval on the upper side and flat below, in which they do not become pupa; till the third week. The pupa small, cylindrical, reddish-brown, dull, in some degree powdered with blue.

" The perfect insect or moth measures, with extended wings, from tip to tip, one inch and from six to nine lines The forewings bluish grey, rather shining, divided by three incisions at the! sides, and situated between two blackish undulated cross lines, have been some-times compared to a pair of spectacles (or a figure of eight)".

Bombyx Lubricipeda. Spotted Buff Moth

The caterpillars of this feed on the leaves of elder, horse-radish, lilacs, beans, and indeed seem to be omnivo- ' . ■ runs. The larva; appear in June and July, and are thus described by Mr. Curtis: -

"The back is dark green, and the under side pale green, with a wavy white line down each side, from the head to the tail. The spiracles also are white; the whole animal is covered with little rust-coloured cushions, which produce brushes of longish reddish-brown hairs, so that it resembles a little bear's skin. When full grown, they retire to the stems of plants and the chinks in walls, to change to black shining chrysalids, in an oval loose cocoon, composed of silk, and the hairs from their skin.

"The moth rests with its wings de-flexed; is of a pale ochre, or buff colour; the antennas are black, and bipectinated in the male; the eyes, palpi, and legs are also black, excepting the thighs, which are of an orange colour, and the tibia and tarsi are variegated with buff; the upper wings have two long black spots upon the costal margin, with one or more dots near the base, in a transverse line. As the moths stick about plants and walls, often in pairs, in May and June, they are easily detected, and it becomes necessary to kill them to prevent the havoc they make with the foliage." - Gard. Chron.