Chrysalis glossy red brown, in a cocoon spun up among dead leaves, etc., under loose bark, or on the ground.
The moth does not emerge until October, and in that month, but more frequently in November and December, the males may be seen around gas lamps quite late at night.
Although found chiefly in woods it is not essentially a woodland species, as it occurs in districts where there are no woods but plenty of trees growing in parks, fields, or even hedgerows. It is fairly common generally throughout England and Wales, but becoming rather more local northwards to Cumberland. It occurs through Scotland to Sutherland, but is nowhere common. In Ireland it is widely distributed, and not uncommon near Dublin, and at Favour Royal, Tyrone. Abroad it ranges through Northern and Central Europe.
THE SMALL EGGAR (_Eriogaster lanestris_).
Also a brownish insect with somewhat thinly-scaled wings. The fore wings are light reddish brown with a whitish patch at the base, a white spot about the centre, and a whitish transverse line beyond; the hind wings are smoky brown and have a pale central band. The female, which is larger than the male, has a conspicuous greyish anal tuft, the hairs from which she uses to cover over her pale oily green eggs when they are deposited in clusters on twigs of hawthorn or sloe in February or March. Plate 50, Figs. 5, 6; Plate 53, Figs. 2, 2a.
Pl. 53. 1, 1a. DECEMBER MOTH: _eggs and caterpillar_. 2, 2a. SMALL EGGAR: _eggs and caterpillar_.
{ 115} The caterpillar is black or greyish black, with reddish brown hairs, and a series of black-edged yellowish brown, or reddish brown blotches on each side of the back; these blotches are outlined in pale yellowish and occasionally connected by a line of the same colour. From the time they are hatched until nearly mature the caterpillars live in companies on a closely woven web of silk on a branch of hawthorn or sloe, only leaving their habitation to feed. These webs may often be seen on hedgerows from May to July. The brown chrysalis is enclosed in a solid-looking oval cocoon of a pale ochreous or whitish colour. Not all the moths emerge the following year: some will remain in the chrysalis over two or three winters, and occasionally they have been known to emerge seven years after pupation. The moth is said to be fully formed within the chrysalis all the time, but for some reason will not emerge, although if extracted from its shell, the moth has been known to expand its wings in the ordinary way. Barrett states that in the middle of February, after a moth had emerged, he "put a large number of cocoons upon a warm mantelpiece and obtained scores of moths within a few hours."