The rather downy caterpillar is yellow, with several interrupted blackish lines, and of these the one along the middle of the back is the broadest and blackest; head black. It feeds, during August and September, in companies, until nearly full grown, and the foliage of almost any kind of tree or bush appears to be suitable food, although that of elm, lime, and hazel is often selected by the female moth when depositing her whitish eggs, which {82} she lays in neatly arranged batches on the undersides of the leaves. If undisturbed, a company of these caterpillars quickly clear a fair-sized branch of all leafage. The chrysalis is purplish brown (the early stages are shown on Plate 37). The moth flies in June and July, but is rarely seen in the daytime. The wings in repose are closely folded down to the body and the insect has then a very stick-like appearance, and may thus easily escape detection. Occurs throughout England and Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. It is most common, and the caterpillar often abundant, in London and its suburbs, as well as other southern parts of the country. Its range extends through Europe to Northern Asia Minor, Armenia, and Siberia. THE CHOCOLATE-TIP (_Pygæra curtula_). Two examples of this moth are shown on Plate 35. Fig. 2 represents the spring (April and May) form, and Fig. 1 the summer (July and August) form. Sometimes there is a third brood, in September or October, and Barrett describes the individuals of this as "pale drab, dusted with darker atoms, and with the chocolate blotch paler towards the apex." Hybrids have been obtained from a pairing between _curtula_ female and _anachoreta_ male, and these were most like the female parent. The early stages are figured on Plate 34, Figs. 1-1c. The verdigris-green eggs are laid in batches on the leaves of poplar and aspen, upon which the caterpillars feed in May and June, and, as a second brood, in August and September. In colour the caterpillar, which is rather hairy, is grey, with a pinkish tinge, sprinkled with black, and with orange spots on the sides; there is a raised black spot on the fourth ring, and another on the eleventh; head blackish. The chrysalis is reddish-brown, spun up in a packet of leaves. This species appears to be less common in England than formerly. It is, {83} perhaps, more often observed in Kent and Sussex than in the other counties it inhabits, which, according to Barrett, are Berks, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, in all of which it is local; also, but more rarely, in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland, the latter county being its northern limit. To the above may be added Hertfordshire and Middlesex. Although caterpillars are reported to have been found in Ireland, the moth has not been reared in that country. This species is distributed through Northern and Central Europe, extending to South France, Corsica, North Italy, Bulgaria, Armenia, and Mongolia.