Chrysalis glossy red brown, in a cocoon spun up among dead leaves, etc., under loose bark, or on the ground.
The moth does not emerge until October, and in that month, but more frequently in November and December, the males may be seen around gas lamps quite late at night.
Although found chiefly in woods it is not essentially a woodland species, as it occurs in districts where there are no woods but plenty of trees growing in parks, fields, or even hedgerows. It is fairly common generally throughout England and Wales, but becoming rather more local northwards to Cumberland. It occurs through Scotland to Sutherland, but is nowhere common. In Ireland it is widely distributed, and not uncommon near Dublin, and at Favour Royal, Tyrone. Abroad it ranges through Northern and Central Europe.
The Small Eggar (Eriogaster lanestris).
Also a brownish insect with somewhat thinly-scaled wings. The fore wings are light reddish brown with a whitish patch at the base, a white spot about the centre, and a whitish transverse line beyond; the hind wings are smoky brown and have a pale central band. The female, which is larger than the male, has a conspicuous greyish anal tuft, the hairs from which she uses to cover over her pale oily green eggs when they are deposited in clusters on twigs of hawthorn or sloe in February or March. Plate [50], Figs. 5, 6; Plate [53], Figs. 2, 2a.
| Pl. 52. |
| Oak Eggar Moth. |
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| Pl. 53. | ||
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