“On August 23rd I happened to be going across the farm of Townhead, in Closeburn parish, Dumfriesshire, and about 10.10 a.m. the Antler moths appeared in myriads. Thousands upon thousands of them were flying in all directions, most of them just amongst and over the flowering heads of the spret, Juncus articulatus; but many were flying higher in the air, and some mounted up out of sight. It was a wonderful scene, and one that I would not have cared to miss. The effect was altogether different to that presented by the evening flight I saw near Loch Dungeon in the previous autumn.
FIG. 4.—ANTLER OR GRASS MOTH, CHARÆAS GRAMINIS,
AND CATERPILLARS.
“A party of gentlemen fishing from near the Holm of Dalquhairn for some five or six miles down the Ken found all the trout they caught perfectly crammed with these ‘hill-grub’ caterpillars. Old shepherds will tell of times when they were so numerous that after sudden thundershowers the sheep-drains have been completely dammed up with their bodies. The moth deposits its eggs, which produce larvæ that descend to and feed mostly about the roots of grasses during the autumn and early winter. After hybernation they commence in March and April to feed again with redoubled energy, and they turn to pupæ at the end of June and during July, producing the moths again in a few weeks (the perfect insect flies during August and September). Thus their cycle of existence in these various stages extends the whole year round. Their worst natural enemy is the common rook at the season when these birds betake themselves and their young broods to the hills, and I have reason to believe that many other birds devour them. The blackheaded gull, Larus ridibundus, and the common gull, L. canus, are very fond of the larvæ. Curlews take a good many, golden plovers and lapwings pick them up in numbers. Cuckoos also feed upon them, and I have found the stomachs of snow buntings, shot on the hills at midwinter, filled with these grubs” (R. S.).
Miss Ormerod says: “The caterpillars, when full grown, are about an inch or rather more long, with brown head, and the body of a deep bronze colour, exceedingly shiny on the back and on the upper part of the sides. The bronze colour is divided lengthwise by three pale lines, the back and side stripes meeting or almost meeting above the tail, and another narrower pale stripe or line runs lower down along each side.”]
To Robert Service, Esq., Maxwelltown, Dumfries.
Torrington House, St. Albans,
August 1, 1894.
Dear Sir,—It is many years since you gave me any of your good observations, but indeed I would gladly have profited by them, and it was only lately that I knew you were continuing them. Perhaps Mr. Bailey, the editor,[[48]] may have mentioned to you that I was so struck with the paper which he sent me, in which you mention C. graminis, that interpreting the nom de plume (“Mabie Moss”) literally, I wrote to him expressing my admiration and asking if I might be put in communication with the writer; and now may I prefer the request to yourself that, if you please, you will kindly tell me anything you are inclined to favour me with about this recent outbreak of the C. graminis. Would it not be of great interest if we could make out something more about the parasites? There are, firstly, the threadworms—Mermis. Do you chance to have identified them? I have got no further than the specialist to whom I sent specimens, thinking they were most likely Mermis albicans—but this he was going to investigate. Then there is the bacterian infestation—the “flacherie,”[[49]] as they call it in silk-worms. This seems to me of great practical interest; and, thirdly, the larval parasitism of the C. graminis larvæ. I had so exceedingly few specimens that I could not work up the matter, but, whilst one cocoon sent to me appeared to be that of an Ichneumon, the only large larva which I found certainly in many respects resembled that of a Tachina fly. I should greatly like, if agreeable to yourself, to hear from you again on entomological matters. Besides the pleasure, it is a great advantage to me to have contributions of skilled and experienced information, and I would indeed most scrupulously acknowledge to whom I was indebted.