Also eggar. [app. f. EGG sb. + -ER; see quot. 1720.] A collector’s name for various species of moths, esp. the Oak Egger-moth (Bombyx quercus).
1705[?]. B. Wilkes Bowles, New Collection Engl. Moths Plate I, The Great Egger Moth.
1720. Albin, Nat. Hist. Insects, Descr. Pl. xviii. It spun itself … a britle brown Case b, in form of an Egg, like Caterpillar a in the next plate; for which reason they are called by some the great and small Egger.
1775. M. Harris, Eng. Lepidoptera, 21.
1859. W. S. Coleman, Woodlands (1862), 89. The caterpillar of that fine large insect, the Oak Egger-moth, is said to feed on the leaves of the Heath.
1869. E. Newman, Nat. Hist. Brit. Moths, 41. The Pale Oak Eggar (Trichiura cratægi); the Small Eggar (Eriogaster lanestris); the Oak Eggar (Bombyx quercus); the Grass Eggar (Bombyx trifolii).
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 12 Aug., 3/2. An oak-egger has been seen in Hyde Park.
