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THE GYPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



The gypsy and brown-tail moths in their caterpillar stage 

 are well-known European pests of fruit, shade and forest 

 trees. As far back as authentic records exist, both insects 

 have been notably injurious at times in various sections of 

 central and southern Europe. 



The gypsy moth has made itself felt perhaps more as a 

 general pest of trees of all kinds, while the brown-tail moth 

 is more common as an enemy of fruit trees. In fact, the 

 latter insect is known in France as " la commune" the com- 

 mon caterpillar. So common are both insects, and so im- 

 portant have been their intermittent ravages, that the very 

 earliest writings on European entomology contain mention 

 and often full discussions of their habits and of the remedies 

 best suited to counteract their attacks. At times their 

 ravages have so increased as to become of historic impor- 

 tance ; then subsiding for a term of years, possibly even for 

 a generation, they have increased again to noteworthy mag- 

 nitude. The caterpillar plagues resulting from the unre- 

 stricted multiplication of these insects have often caused 

 the enactment of stringent legislation in many European 

 countries, and at other times their ravages have been even 

 sufficient to cause official days of prayer and fasting. 



The brown-tail moth has been officially under the ban of 

 the Church, as witness the edict at Grenoble, France, in 

 1543, whereby the insect, which had stripped the trees of 

 the city and poisoned many of the inhabitants, was treated 

 as one of the works of the Evil One. Later in the same 



