PLATE XXXII1. Oak Eggar2. Drinker3. Drinker Caterpillar
PLATE XXXII
1. Oak Eggar2. Drinker3. Drinker Caterpillar
If you walk across a heath or a moor on a hot day in June you may often see a large brown moth dashing wildly about quite close to the ground. This is almost sure to be a male Oak Eggar. You can always tell him from the female by his deep chestnut-brown wings, hers being light brownish-yellow. And besides that, she is a good deal larger than he is, and has a very much stouter body.
The caterpillar of this moth is a big brown creature, which you may find feeding upon the leaves of hawthorn bushes in May. You cannot possibly mistake it for that of any other insect, for its body is covered all over with short yellow down, just like fur. If you touch it, or frighten it in any way, it at once drops to the ground and curls itself up into a ring; and then you notice a number of black bands round its body, which are really formed by the dark skin showing through the fur.
Early in June this caterpillar spins a dark brown cocoon and changes to a brown chrysalis, out of which the moth hatches about a fortnight or three weeks later.
This seems rather an odd name to give to a moth, doesn’t it? But it really belongs to the caterpillar, which you may often see drinking the dewdrops on the long grass on which it feeds. It is a very hairy caterpillar, of a dark brown colour, with yellow spots and streaks upon its sides, and little tufts of short white down between them. I would advise you to be very careful in handling it, for its long hairs have a way of working themselves into one’s skin, and causing big swellings and a great deal of irritation. Indeed, if you were to rub your eyes after handling one of these caterpillars, you would run a good deal of risk of losing your sight!
Drinker caterpillars are very common indeed in some places, and you may often see them feeding on the long grass by the roadside in May. About the beginning of June they spin shuttle-shaped yellow cocoons, which are always fastened to stout grass-stems, and turn to dark brown chrysalids, out of which the moths hatch in July. The male moth, like that of the “oak eggar,” is a good deal smaller than the female, and is much darker in colour.