Pl. 40. 1. DARK TUSSOCK MOTH, _male_; 2 _female_. 3. SCARCE VAPOURER, _male_; 5 _female_. 4. VAPOURER, _male_; 6 _female_. 7. PALE TUSSOCK, _male_; 8 _female_. [Illustration] Pl. 41. 1, 1a. SCARCE VAPOURER: _caterpillar and cocoon_. 2, 2a. COMMON VAPOURER: _egg-batch on cocoon and enlarged egg_. 3, 3a, 3b, 3c. PALE TUSSOCK: _egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and cocoon_. 4. DARK TUSSOCK: _caterpillar_. {97} Generally distributed throughout the United Kingdom, but not so common in Ireland as in England and Scotland. It is quite a Cockney insect, and is found in almost every part of the Metropolis where there are a few trees. Occurs practically over the whole of Europe, and in North-east Asia Minor, Armenia, Siberia, Amurland, and North America. THE DARK TUSSOCK (_Dasychira fascelina_). The figures of the sexes of this species on Plate 40 represent the dark grey form. Sometimes the forewings are whitish grey and occasionally slaty grey; the cross lines may be stronger or fainter, and in some specimens are nearly absent; the yellowish colour usually seen on the cross lines may be missing, or, on the other hand, other parts of the wings may be stippled with yellowish. Laying her eggs in batches, the female carefully covers them with dark brown hairs from the tuft at the end of her body. The caterpillar (Plate 41, Fig. 4) is blackish, with star-like tufts of hairs, yellow, mixed with longer blackish ones towards the head and tail, brownish grey on the middle portion; a brush of black hairs on rings four, five, and eleven, and of white hairs on six, seven, and eight. Head black. When full grown (Plate 42, Fig. 3) the hairs of the body are greyish, and those of the brushes on the back are black flanked with white. When disturbed it rolls in a ring. It feeds on hawthorn, and various species of _Salix_, also on broom and ling. It hibernates when still small, in a silken cocoon-like envelope which it spins in the fork of a branch, or among the twigs of a bush; growth is completed in April or May, and the winged state attained in {98} June or July. Sometimes the young caterpillars have been found in their winter quarters about the middle of July, and this would seem to imply that they occasionally lie dormant for two winters; at least this would appear to be so in Scotland whence such individuals have been recorded, with the additional information that they did not eat through the summer and that one was still alive in the following March. The chrysalis is glossy black, and hairy (Plate 42, Fig. 3a). This is chiefly a northern insect, occurring most commonly on the Cheshire, Lancashire, and Cumberland coast. It is more generally distributed in Scotland and is often abundant on the moorlands. In Ireland three caterpillars were found by Mr. Kane in the Bog of Allen, and the species has also been recorded from Tullamore and Mullingar. Distribution: Northern and Central Europe, extending to the Altai.