The Moths of the British Isles Volume I Part 11

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Pl. 40.

1. DARK TUSSOCK MOTH, _male_; 2 _female_.

3. SCARCE VAPOURER, _male_; 5 _female_.

4. VAPOURER, _male_; 6 _female_.

7. PALE TUSSOCK, _male_; 8 _female_.

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Pl. 41.

1, 1a. SCARCE VAPOURER: _caterpillar and coc.o.o.n_.

2, 2a. COMMON VAPOURER: _egg-batch on coc.o.o.n and enlarged egg_.

3, 3a, 3b, 3c. PALE TUSSOCK: _egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and coc.o.o.n_.

4. DARK TUSSOCK: _caterpillar_.

{97} Generally distributed throughout the United Kingdom, but not so common in Ireland as in England and Scotland. It is quite a c.o.c.kney insect, and is found in almost every part of the Metropolis where there are a few trees.

Occurs practically over the whole of Europe, and in North-east Asia Minor, Armenia, Siberia, Amurland, and North America.

THE DARK TUSSOCK (_Dasychira fascelina_).

The figures of the s.e.xes of this species on Plate 40 represent the dark grey form. Sometimes the forewings are whitish grey and occasionally slaty grey; the cross lines may be stronger or fainter, and in some specimens are nearly absent; the yellowish colour usually seen on the cross lines may be missing, or, on the other hand, other parts of the wings may be stippled with yellowish. Laying her eggs in batches, the female carefully covers them with dark brown hairs from the tuft at the end of her body.

The caterpillar (Plate 41, Fig. 4) is blackish, with star-like tufts of hairs, yellow, mixed with longer blackish ones towards the head and tail, brownish grey on the middle portion; a brush of black hairs on rings four, five, and eleven, and of white hairs on six, seven, and eight. Head black.

When full grown (Plate 42, Fig. 3) the hairs of the body are greyish, and those of the brushes on the back are black flanked with white. When disturbed it rolls in a ring. It feeds on hawthorn, and various species of _Salix_, also on broom and ling. It hibernates when still small, in a silken coc.o.o.n-like envelope which it spins in the fork of a branch, or among the twigs of a bush; growth is completed in April or May, and the winged state attained in {98} June or July. Sometimes the young caterpillars have been found in their winter quarters about the middle of July, and this would seem to imply that they occasionally lie dormant for two winters; at least this would appear to be so in Scotland whence such individuals have been recorded, with the additional information that they did not eat through the summer and that one was still alive in the following March. The chrysalis is glossy black, and hairy (Plate 42, Fig.

3a).

This is chiefly a northern insect, occurring most commonly on the Cheshire, Lancashire, and c.u.mberland coast. It is more generally distributed in Scotland and is often abundant on the moorlands. In Ireland three caterpillars were found by Mr. Kane in the Bog of Allen, and the species has also been recorded from Tullamore and Mullingar. Distribution: Northern and Central Europe, extending to the Altai.

THE PALE TUSSOCK (_Dasychira pudibunda_).

This moth is much commoner and more widely distributed in England than that last mentioned. The central area of the greyish white fore wings is subject to variation in width and also in tint; this latter may be darker or lighter than the example shown on Plate 40, and the cross lines are in some specimens black and very distinct. The colour of the female ranges from pale greyish white through various tones of grey, and the bands on the hind wings may be as well defined as in the male. Black males of the species have been recorded.

The hairy caterpillar is green or yellow, the former mottled with whitish and the latter with greenish; on rings 4 to 7 are thick brushes of yellow hairs, and on ring 11 there is a tuft of reddish hair; the back is marked with black between the brushes, and there are black spots on the sides of the hind rings. Sometimes the caterpillar is light or dark brownish and the brushes are then greyish, or tinged with pale reddish or blackish.

Altogether it is a pretty creature, and as it is, or was previous to the modern "washing," common in hop gardens at picking time, it was christened the "hop dog." It may be found from July to September on the foliage of birch, hazel, oak, and many other trees, as well as on hop. The moth appears in May and June, and rests by day on herbage, especially on bracken in woods (see Fig. 6, p. 7); at night it comes readily to light, but specimens so obtained are generally of the female s.e.x.

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Pl. 42.

1, 1a. YELLOW-TAIL: _caterpillars_.

2. BROWN-TAIL: _caterpillar_.

3, 3a. DARK TUSSOCK: _caterpillar and chrysalis_.

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Pl. 43.

1. BROWN-TAIL MOTH, _male_; 2 _female_.

3. YELLOW-TAIL MOTH, _female_; 4, 5 _males_.

6. WHITE SATIN MOTH, _female_.

{99} It is most at home in the southern portion, but occurs throughout England and Wales, to c.u.mberland. Only doubtfully recorded from Scotland, but in Ireland it has occurred in Galway, Kerry, Waterford, Cork, and Wicklow.

Distribution: Central and Northern Europe eastward to North-east China and j.a.pan.

THE BROWN-TAIL (_Euproctis chrysorrhoea_).

Although sometimes found in the East and West of England, and even in Yorkshire and Durham, this appears to be essentially a coast species in Britain, and confined at that to Kent and Suss.e.x, the former especially.

Even in these favoured localities where it is usually abundant, it is, however, not always in evidence. The moths sit about at the end of July and early August on leaves of hawthorn, sloe, sea-buckthorn (_Hippophae rhamnoides_), and wild rose, generally on the underside. Near the females will be found batches of eggs, which are covered with "fur" from the a.n.a.l tuft of the female. The caterpillars hatch out in August, and while still very small go into hibernation in a common nest. In the spring, when active again, they construct a new habitation, and another or perhaps two more before they are full grown, about June. The chrysalis is very dark, almost blackish-brown, with tufts of hair, and the fairly substantial brownish coc.o.o.n in which it is enclosed {100} is composed of silk and caterpillar hairs, and is spun up on the food-plant, often singly, but not infrequently, several are made up in a common silken covering.

The caterpillar is blackish with brownish warts, each bearing a tuft of brownish hairs; a row of tufts of white downy scales on each side of the back of rings four to eleven; the central line on the back is black, edged on each side by a red line of variable width from rings six to ten; a vermillion round spot on nine and ten. Head blackish.

The moth is shown on Plates 43, 45, and the caterpillar on Plate 42, Fig.

1.

Distribution, Central and South Europe to North-west Africa and Asia Minor.

In 1897 an appeal was made to British entomologists to refrain from taking many specimens of this species; while American entomologists were seeking power to compel local authorities to suppress the Brown-tail, which about that time was a new, and no doubt introduced, insect pest in the State of Ma.s.sachusetts.

THE YELLOW-TAIL (_Porthesia similis_).

The male has usually only one black mark on the fore wings, but sometimes there are two, as seen in Fig. 5, Plate 43; more rarely there is a dot or two towards the tips of the wings. The habit of the moth is to sit upon the foliage of bushes and the branches of trees, where it might easily be pa.s.sed over for a fluffy white feather; occasionally it may be found on palings or even iron railings. About dark it is on the wing, and light has then a great attraction for it. The caterpillar is black with black and grey hairs; a vermillion stripe down the middle of the back has a black central line, and is expanded on rings four, eleven, and twelve; along each side there are tufts of snowy white fluffy scales; the back of rings four, {101} five, and eleven is velvety black and slightly raised, especially on ring four. Head black and glossy.

The caterpillars hatch from the eggs, which are laid in batches, in August, hibernate, each in a silken case, and recommence feeding in the spring (Plate 42, Figs. 1, 1a). In May, when nearly full grown, they separate and are then common objects on hawthorn hedges in many districts. They also feed on the foliage of oak, beech, birch, sallow, rose, apple, pear, and other fruit trees. Sometimes a nearly fully mature caterpillar has been found in August, this has pupated and produced a moth the same year. The chrysalis is rather hairy and of a brownish colour; the coc.o.o.n is similar to that of the last species. In late June and through July the moth is generally common throughout the Southern part of England, and as far northwards as Lancashire and Yorkshire. It has been very rarely seen in Scotland, and not at all in Ireland.

Distribution, Central and South-eastern Europe, extending to Amurland, China, Corea, and j.a.pan.

THE REED TUSSOCK (_Laelia coenosa_).

This insect (Plate 45) was formerly abundant in some parts of fenland, and was first met with, as a British species, at Whittlesea Mere about 1819 or 1820. It was subsequently found in Yaxley and Burwell fens. Up to 1860 it continued to occur freely in all stages, but by 1865 larvae at a shilling per dozen, the price at which they had been sold by the reed cutters, were no longer obtainable, and they became so scarce that in the year 1871 or thereabouts, only two caterpillars were seen. The species was at that time seemingly on the decline, but a year or two later a good many males were attracted by the rays of a powerful lamp that had been set up at Wicken.

Then the moths became fewer and fewer {102} until at last, somewhere about 1880, even the lamps would not draw a single specimen, and soon it appeared probable that the last of the Reed Tussock had been seen in the fens, its only known habitat in Britain.

Caterpillar, dusky with a blackish stripe along the middle of the back; the raised dots are ochreous grey with pale yellowish brown hairs arising from them; there are four brushes of yellow hairs on the back, bunches of long hairs on the first ring extended over the brownish head, and a pencil of similar hairs on ring eleven directed backward. The food plants given are bur-reed (_Sparganium_), Stephens; _Cladium mariscus_, Barrett, and reed (_Phragmites communis_). Stephens states that the caterpillar and the moth were found at the end of July and beginning of August, but other authorities give August to June for the caterpillar, and July for the moth.

The caterpillar described above, and of which a figure is given on Plate 44, was obtained, together with eggs and coc.o.o.n, from Dr. Staudinger and Bang Haas, of Dresden. All are preserved examples.

Abroad this species is found in Northern Germany and France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Amurland, China, Corea, and j.a.pan.

THE WHITE SATIN MOTH (_Stilpnotia salicis_).

The English name of this species dates back to about 1773, and is a very suitable one for it, the fore wings being especially glossy and satin-like.

It seems to be less generally distributed over the country than formerly, but it is still common in most years, and in many places; more particularly in the south of England, and on the Lancashire coast. Even yet it occurs in the suburbs of London, and on the southern side is sometimes not uncommon.

In Scotland it appears to be rare; Barrett mentions it from Aberdeen, Pitcaple, Inverurie, Peterhead, and Ayrshire. Kane states that in Ireland the species, so far as he knew, only occurred in a locality near Ahascragh.

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Pl. 44.

1, 1a, 1b. REED TUSSOCK: _egg, caterpillar and coc.o.o.n_.

2, 2a. WHITE SATIN: _caterpillar and chrysalis_.

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