The early stages are figured on Plate [47].
The eggs of this species are laid in August in the chinks of bark on tree trunks, and do not hatch until the spring.
Caterpillar, whitish varying to greyish, a deep brown stripe along the middle of the back with an irregular black line on each side of it; the stripe is interrupted by a whitish or greyish patch on rings seven to nine; on ring two there is a black mark, and occasionally red dots appear on eight and nine; black dots on the back and sides are furnished with hairs. Head, brownish marked with a paler tint. It feeds from April to July on the leaves of oak and various other trees, including apple and pine.
The chrysalis, which is enclosed in a somewhat transparent silken cocoon spun up in a fissure of the bark, is brownish, hairy, and has a very glossy metallic appearance.
The moth emerges at the end of July and in August. It flies
at night, and may be seen resting by day on the trunks of trees. Although it occurs in most of the counties of England from Yorkshire southwards, and in some parts of Wales, it is nowhere so often met with as in the New Forest, Hants.
Distribution, Central Europe extending to parts of Northern Europe, and southwards to North Italy and Greece, and eastwards to Ussuri and Japan.
Lackeys and Eggars (Lasiocampidæ).
Staudinger in his catalogue of Palæarctic Lepidoptera refers twenty genera comprising sixty-three species to this family. Of these, eleven species belonging to ten genera occur in the British Isles. According to some authorities a twelfth species, Dendrolimus pini, Linn., should be included. This is the Eutricha pini of Stephens (1828) and the "Wild Pine tree Lappet moth" and "Pine tree Lappet" of the more ancient authors. The claim of this species to a place in the British list rests chiefly on a specimen captured in the Norwich Hospital, in July, 1809, by Mr. Sparshall. Wilkes (1773) states that he once found a caterpillar near Richmond Park, but the moth was not reared. For generations the species now classified as Lasiocampidæ have been referred to Bombycidæ, but the silkworm (Bombyx mori) is typical of that family, which has but few genera in it, and none of them occur in Europe. Although some of the moths are of considerable size, most of them are not large. The general colour is some shade of brown. Both sexes have the antennæ bipectinated, but more strongly in the male than the female.
In his treatment of the species here included under Lasiocampidæ, Tutt. ("A Natural History of the British Lepidoptera," vols. i., ii.) separates them into two families, Lachneidæ and Eutrichidæ. The first family is divided into five sub-families and the same number of tribes. The latter family has three sub-families and three tribes. The whole are embraced in a super-family styled Lachneides. Lasiocampidæ disappears as a family name, but the genus Lasiocampa is retained for quercus, L., whilst trifolii, Schiff., is referred to the genus Pachygastria, Hb., and these with Aurivillia, Tutt, not represented in Britain, constitute the Pachygastriidi tribe of the Pachygastriinæ, a sub-family of Lachneidæ. All this will no doubt appear very complicated to the beginner, but he need not worry himself very greatly about the matter at present. When he feels that he has a fair knowledge of the species in the group he will be in a position to grapple with the niceties of classification.