Pl. 46.
1.Gipsy Moth, male; 2 female.
3, 4.Black Arches, males; 5, 6 females.

Pl. 47.
Black Arches Moth.
Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillars and chrysalids.

The Lackey (Malacosoma neustria).

The colour of the male ranges from pale yellow ochre, through pale brown to reddish or dark brown; and in the female from pale brown to reddish brown; two cross lines are generally present on the fore wings; the space between the lines is usually darker in the female, and sometimes in the male also, forming a dark central band. All these colour forms were reared from some caterpillars taken by myself at Byfleet, Surrey, in 1901. Another year a few caterpillars taken at Esher produced ochreous coloured males and pale brown females only; the bands of the latter were narrower than usual and much contracted below the middle. As the females last mentioned are somewhat under the normal size I am inclined to think that the caterpillars from which they were reared had been on short commons during their last stage. Two males and a female are shown on Plate [48].

The greyish brown eggs are laid during July and August in a ring cluster around a twig as shown on Plate [49], and so they remain exposed to all weathers during the winter. In April the caterpillars hatch out, and as they live in company throughout the greater part of their larval existence, the first business is to

construct a silken tent-like web (Fig. 22). The exterior of the tent affords a suitable surface upon which they can lie when they take a sun bath, which they seem fond of doing whenever the opportunity offers. It is also used, as well as the interior, for the process of skin-changing.