A dictionary of modern gardening - University Library

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BOM 93
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in a slanting direction ; and when its Its caterpillar usually confines its at-
wings are expanded, they measure tacks to the leaves of the white and
above two inches from one point to
the other. There are four or five black
notched lines on the upper wings, on a
black thorn, but sometimes spreads to
our fruit trees. M. Kollar observes
that— " [n the day time it sits quietly
white ground, and there is a black on a leaf, or on a wall, and suflers itself
spot between the middle ones. The to be caught in the h;ind. It has refront
of the body is white, with black ceived its name from the posterior part
spots, and the abdomen varied with of its body being covered with a round
black rings, and red incisions, which, mass of golden yellow hair. Its fore-
however, are sometimes wanting. wings are of a dazzling whiteness, as
" The caterpillar, when fully grown, is also the greater part of its body
measures from one and a half to one only the principal vein of the forewinu
and three-quarter inches, the transverse of the male is brown on the under side.
diameter one line and a half. It is and it has also sometimes a few black
usually of a brown grey mixed with
black, and occasfonally entirely black;
dots on its wings.
" At the end of June this moth usu-
sometimes, but still more rarely, it is ally appears, seeks a companion, and
of a whitish colour. The head is large, continues its species. The female
covered with short hairs, and it has a usually lays her eggs on the under side
brownish line alond the forehead, which of the leaf, in a small heap or mass,
ends in a triangular spot of the same and covers them with hair from her
colour over the mouth. Wherever it tail. Hence, nothing is seen of the
goes it spins a thread after it out of the eggs, as they lie in rows under the
spinnerds under the mouth. If its rest- covering of hair. The number of eggs
ing-place be shaken, it hastily lets itself in the heap amounts to from two to three
down and curls itself up. It usually
goes into the pupa state from the begin-
hundred ; they arc round, and of a gold
colour; when the female has laid her
ning of June to July, when the cater- eggs she dies, after having applied all
pillar is fully grown ; the pupa is surrounded
by a slight web, which is
the hair from her tail' to form the covering.
The caterpillars are usually
sometimes formed among the foliage, hatched at the end of July. They have
and sometimes over hollows of the a dirty-yellow appearance, a black
bark ; after which the caterpillar skin head, and a black ring round the neck;
is cast oft" in three or four days. The they are thickly covered with hair, and
pupa is three-quarters of an inch long; have four rows of blackish dots along
at first green, then a brownish red, and the back. They change their skins in
afterwards becomes somewhat darker, August. In the middle of September
or rather blackish, with a metallic ap- they cease feeding, and in October they
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pearance. only come out of their nest in very
The moth sometimes appears in warm days, when they lie on the outthe
last days of July or beginning of side, but return to the nest in the even-
August ; but the late ones do not appear ing. They become benumbed in No-
and even in extreme cold they
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till September. Af\er pairing, the fe- vember,
male lays her eggs by means of her only become benumbed, and resume
ovipositor, in the cracks of the bark of their activity when warm weather sets
the old trees, in the form of a bunch of in. Before the buds on the trees have
firapes, to the amount of twenty or begun to burst in sprint', some of the
thirty in each cluster. As the oviposi- caterpillars come out of their nests and
tor cannot he used on the beach, oak, eat the folded leaves. In the course of
and birch, she lays her eggs on the bark, a few days they are found in multitudes
and (laps her wings over them, to cover at the forks of the branches in the side
thorn with the dust from her wings and of the tree exposed to the sun." Kolbody.
One female usually lays one lar.
hundred and twenty eggs in the course B. caruleocepha/a. Figure-of-eight
of twenty-lour hours, at three or four
intervals. They are not spherical, but
moth. Its caterpillar selects the leaves
of the black and white thorn, almond,
flat on two sides, and very sharp and apricot, and peach, though it will attack
rough to the touch. those of other trees. Kollar tells us
that— '• At the tune of pupation these
B. chrysorrhixa. Yellow-tailed moth. [
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