PLATE XXX
THE PALE TUSSOCK (3 and 4)

You may sometimes see this handsome moth resting on a fence in May, and “drying” its wings after coming out from the chrysalis. The female is not quite like the male, for she is generally a good deal larger, with a very much stouter body, and instead of having a dark brown stripe across the middle of her wings, as he has, she has two wavy lines, one rather before the middle, and the other rather beyond it.

The caterpillar of this moth is generally known as the “hop dog”; but I cannot tell you the reason why, for it feeds a great deal more often on the leaves of oak, lime, and hazel than it does on those of the hop. It is one of the loveliest of all our British caterpillars—very hairy, and of the most delicate pale green colour, with three bands of deep velvety-black round its body. On its back are four brush-like tufts of long yellow hairs, pointing forwards, and on its tail is another still longer tuft of the same colour, which points backwards. When it is fully grown it spins a very slight silken web among the leaves, and turns to a hairy chrysalis. You may find it feeding in July and August.

[PLATE XXXI]

1. Lackey 2. Lackey Caterpillar
3. Vapourer, male4. Vapourer Caterpillar
5. Vapourer, female

PLATE XXXI
THE LACKEY (1 and 2)

If you look at the twigs of apple trees during the winter-time you will sometimes find that they are surrounded by bands of tiny greyish-white eggs, most neatly arranged in rows, which look just like tiny bracelets. These are the eggs of the Lackey Moth, and when they hatch a number of pretty little caterpillars make their appearance, and at once set to work to spin a big silken web among the leaves, in which they live. They are rather hairy, and have blue-grey heads with two black spots which look just like eyes, and bodies striped with white, and blue, and red, and yellow. And sometimes they are so plentiful that they strip whole branches, and even whole trees, of their leaves. When they are fully grown they spin yellow cocoons, in which a quantity of dust that looks just like powdered sulphur is mixed up, and change to smooth brown chrysalids, out of which the moths are hatched in July.