September 14, 2007

After midsummer, the conspicuous cream, black and yellow-spotted "Magpie" moth (_Abraxas

After midsummer, the conspicuous cream, black and yellow-spotted "Magpie" moth (_Abraxas grossulariata_) is common in gardens. The female lays her eggs on a variety of shrubby plants; gooseberry and currant bushes are often chosen. From the eggs caterpillars are hatched in autumn, but these, instead of beginning to feed, seek almost at once for rolled-up leaves, cracks in walls, crannies of bark, or similar places, which may afford winter shelters. Here they remain until the spring, when they come out to feed on the young foliage and grow rapidly into the conspicuous cream, yellow and black "looper" caterpillars mentioned in a previous chapter (p. 60). These, when fully-grown, spin among the twigs of the food-plant a light cocoon, in which the black and yellow-banded wasp-like pupa spends its short summer term before the emergence of the moth.

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