BARBERRY CARPET MOTH Third Report C. W .
PIERCE
IN the last report it was stated that twenty-seven pupae remained from the second brood of 1971, and from knowledge of what happened in the spring of that year, it was not unreasonable to suppose that emergences in 1972 would occur at about the same date. Thus when I went to Gibraltar for a month from the beginning of April, I expected that none of the moths would have emerged during my absence. Unfortunately, when I returned on 4th May, I found that all of the twenty-seven had emerged, most of which had died. However, some had mated and I was able to find sufficient ova to keep the colony in being and to produce twenty-five pupae for the second 1972 brood. The larvae fed on both Berberis thunbergii and B. vulgaris var. atropurpurea and seemed to thrive on these cultivated forms as well as on their natural wild common barberry. The moths started to emerge early in July, 1972, at least four weeks earlier than in the wild, as was the case in the previous year. There was a greater number of males than females, and for this reason the number of pairings was smaller than the eighteen successful emergences would leave one to expect. It is possible that this preponderance of one sex may have been due to the moths having come from eggs deposited at the end of the laying. Finally, forty-seven pupae were raised ready for 1973, when it was hoped that the resulting imagines, after mating, would be released at a new habitat in which the planting of 100 bushes of the common barberry had been planned. However, it was not possible to get the planting carried out before April, 1973, and because it would have been unwise to have released the moths until the plants had become established, it was necessary to continue breeding the captive colony for a fourth season. By 9th May, 1973, sixteen imagines had emerged and mating started. My diary records that sixty larvae were feeding on 26th May, when, for family reasons, I had to leave at short notice for Gibraltar. Fortunately, I was able to hand over the whole colony to Mr. Richard Luff, of Needham Market, who kindly agreed to care for it during my absence. At this time the moths were in various stages of their life cycle. There were laying moths, small larvae, larvae at the last instar as well as some pupae from 1972. When I returned to this country and relieved Mr. Luff of his bĂźrden on 18th June, about 150 larvae and pupae had been