| Pl. 56. |
| Grass Eggar Moth. |
| Pl. 57. |
| Grass Eggar. |
| Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar. |
The habits of the Oak Eggar moths (quercus) are pretty much the same as those of the Northern form, except that the moths fly in July and August, and frequent hedgerows, the borders of woods, heathy commons, and cliffs and sand dunes at the seaside.
A bred female of either form will attract numerous males, and even the receptacle in which a newly emerged female has been placed is almost as effective as the lady herself. When staying at a cottage on the edge of a moor near Lynton, North Devon, some years ago, I had some pupæ of the Oak Eggar. One day, late in July, quite a number of males entered the cottage and made their way to the cage in which the pupæ were, and I had no difficulty in boxing several of them. The next day I put the female moth, which had emerged the previous day, into a roomy chip box, and carried it in a satchel to the moor, where it was placed on the ground, the males began to arrive soon afterwards and some fine examples were secured. Although the female was taken on the moor only on the one occasion, that satchel continued to be an object of interest to the male Eggars for several days afterwards.
Generally distributed, and often common in some localities, throughout the British Isles. Abroad, its range extends over Europe into Asia Minor, Armenia, and Siberia.
The Grass Eggar (Lasiocampa trifolii).
This moth is usually brown in colour. The fore wings are inclined to dark reddish brown, and have a pale ochreous brown curved band or ring at the base, a slightly curved line or band of the same colour beyond the middle of the wing; central spot