THE ENTOMOLOGIST IN THE FOREST 85
glades on April and May mornings more
commonly than of yore. The abundance in
most years of the Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui),
formerly a rare butterfly with us, is a phenomenon
widely observed of late in the South of England,
and is not one peculiar to our district, pleasing
as it is.
The forest, like all old woodlands, shelters
hundreds of species of moths, both large and
small, but the habits of many of these are very
retired, and the insects are rarely seen unless
specially sought for by those acquainted with their
haunts. To enumerate even a tithe of them would
fill this chapter with a dry list of Latin names.1 A
few which can hardly fail to be seen by the
observant rambler in and about the forest may
be mentioned. On the open heathy ground
north of the Loughton Camp, on warm June
afternoons, the wild dashing flight of the Fox
Moth (Lasiocampa rubi) often attracts attention,
and its comfortably clothed caterpillar may be
found on the ling stems, by the sides of the path-
ways, in the late summer and autumn. On the
outskirts of the forest the males of another great
moth, the Oak Egger (Lasiocampa quercus), belong-
ing to the same genus as the Fox Moth, fly with
almost equal swiftness in the sunshine; they are
in search of the females, which are sluggishly
inclined, and are quietly nestling amid the herbage.
The mysterious attractive power of the females
(known as " assembling "), inherent in many moths,
is extraordinarily developed in this species, and if
a freshly emerged female is taken in a box to a
lane or Woodside where the moth is common,
dozens of the males will speedily fly in from all
directions and dart wildly about the imprisoned
beauty. It is an astonishing spectacle, once seen
never to be forgotten. The very handsome larva;
of this moth and of the Drinker (Odonestis
potatoria) can readily be found stretched on grass
or bramble stems in the hedges, basking in the
1 A list of some of the rarer species was given in the earlier
editions of this book (see pp. 100-102 of the third edition).