The moth is figured on Plate [63], and the eggs and caterpillar on Plate [62].
The eggs, which are whitish in colour with greyish markings, are laid, in July or early August, in twos, threes, or more, on twigs or the undersides of leaves of sloe, apple, sallow, hawthorn, etc. A single female moth has been known to lay over a thousand eggs, but this is perhaps exceptional, and somewhere about half that number is possibly near the average. Even the latter would take the moth some time to distribute here and there in small batches.
The caterpillars hatch out in about a fortnight, feed for a few weeks, and in the autumn, when about three-quarters to one inch in length, take up their winter quarters low down on the stems of the food plant, but, in confinement, often on a withered leaf.
Caterpillar dark grey, so thickly sprinkled with minute black dots as to appear almost black; the whole body is clothed with fine and rather short blackish hair; low down on the side there is a fringe of brownish hair, and this covers the fleshy lappets (the older writers named this larva the "Caterpillar with the Lappets"); two white marks edged in front with black on the third ring, and a hairy prominence on the eleventh, are the most conspicuous features of this caterpillar. When the front rings are extended, the divisions between them are seen to be deep blue. Head grey, with darker stripe and paler lines. Occasionally several white marks appear on the back, and this is stated by Professor Poulton to occur more especially in the caterpillars when the twigs and stems of the food plant upon
which they have grown up are covered with grey lichen. Sometimes the caterpillar has been reported as destructive in orchards; two or three large ones feeding on a small apple tree would certainly afford evidence of their presence in the shape of denuded twigs, but it is doubtful if they ever occur in sufficient numbers to cause any very serious damage to fruit trees.
The chrysalis is dark brown, inclining to blackish, and covered with a whitish powder, which does not shake off. It is enclosed in a long, grey-brown, tight-fitting cocoon of silk and hairs of the caterpillar, which is generally spun up among the lower twigs, or to the stem of the food plant.
The moth emerges in June or July, and is on the wing at night, when it may be sometimes netted as it flies along or over hedgerows. When caught in this way it dashes about so wildly in the net that it is rarely of much value for the collection. The same may be said of examples taken by light, which at times attracts the moths freely. When resting in the daytime, it very closely resembles a withered bramble-leaf or bunch of leaves. The fore wings are folded down, roof-like, over the hind wings, which are flattened out and their edges project beyond the margins of the fore wings. It is, however, very rarely seen in the open at such times.
The species does not seem to have been recorded from Ireland or from Scotland, but it has a wide distribution in England, although much less frequently met with in the north than in the south. In the Cambridge fens it is perhaps more plentiful than elsewhere, but it is not uncommon in some parts of Berkshire, Huntingdonshire, and Kent. The range abroad extends through Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe, to Armenia, Tartary, Siberia, and Amurland; it is also represented in China, Corea, and Japan.
| Pl. 64. |
| Kentish Glory Moth. |
| Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillars, chrysalis and cocoon. |