white, finely margined in black. Except that the female is generally larger, and the cross lines usually less distinct, the sexes are much alike. This brown form occurs most frequently in Britain, but in parts of the Kentish and Sussex coast, and especially the Romney Marsh district, a yellowish form is obtained. In such specimens the cross lines are darker. In both forms one or both cross markings may be faint or quite absent, and even the white central dot, which varies in size and shape, may be missing. Sometimes the outer band is distinctly broad and outwardly diffuse (Plate [56]).
The eggs, which appear to be laid loosely, are pale whitish brown, roughened with darker brown, and the micropylar area is purplish brown. Some that I received on March 2, 1907, appeared to be on the point of hatching on the 5th of that month, but no larva came out, although one of the eggs was chipped at one end. It has been frequently stated that the caterpillars hatch out in the autumn and hibernate, but as has been pointed out by Tutt ("Nat. Hist. Brit. Lep.," ii. 20), the eggs of this species probably do not hatch until some time during February or March, although when kept indoors the caterpillar has emerged from the egg in January.
The full-grown caterpillar is black, velvety between the rings, covered with golden brown hair on the back and greyer hair on the sides, among which are some black ones; three interrupted whitish lines on the back; some of the hairs along the middle of the back stand erect and form a ridge, looked at from either end. Head lightish brown in colour, lined with black. Feeds in the spring months and up to June chiefly on various kinds of grass. Among many of the plants that it has been known to eat are trefoils, bird's-foot (Ornithopus), sea thrift (Statice), heather, sallow, hawthorn, sloe, plum, bramble, etc. With regard to the food, it is interesting to note that although one rearer will find that sallow is excellent for the caterpillars, another considers that sallow or hawthorn are but poor
substitutes for kidney-vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) upon which the caterpillars were feeding when found (Plate [57]).
The brownish chrysalis is enclosed in a hard but somewhat brittle, brown, oval cocoon, and when spun upon the surface of the ground, protected by an outside covering of loose silk webbing. In August and early September the moths appear. Emergence from the chrysalis usually takes place soon after midday; the males are early on the wing, and when reared in captivity they should be secured as soon as the wings are dry, or they may spoil themselves in their efforts to escape. Reared females are apt to be deformed, but for "assembling" they may probably be as useful as more perfect examples if the rearer happens to be able to exhibit the attraction in a locality for the species. Both sexes have been taken at electric light.
The best known localities for the species in England are, besides those already mentioned, the sand hills on the Cheshire and Lancashire coast. It is, or has been, found also on the coast of Cumberland; Lyndhurst and Ringwood, in Hampshire; Isle of Purbeck, Poole, Swanage, and Bloxworth, in Dorsetshire; Devonport, Bolt Head, and Salcombe, in Devonshire; and Penzance and the Scilly Isles. Its range extends through Central and Southern Europe to Asia Minor and North Africa.
The Fox Moth (Macrothylacia rubi).
The male is reddish brown, and the female generally greyish brown, but sometimes is of a reddish grey coloration; the fore wings in both sexes are crossed by two pale ochreous lines on the central area (Plate [59]).
The ground colour in the male ranges in tone from foxy red to dullish red brown or to greyish red brown. The cross lines in either sex may be widely apart, near together, or even united throughout their length, forming a band (var. fasciata, Tutt); sometimes one of the lines (var. unilinea, Tutt), or both lines, are absent from the fore wings, or from one of them.