670 Zoology. 



semblance of winter, when they should be clad in all the full 

 luxuriance of June. Three years since, I first noticed this 

 small and elegantly formed pale green moth, issuing in num- 

 bers from pupas that had filled many a curled oak leaf, and, 

 seeing it for the first time, was struck with its loveliness, al- 

 though I could not but be conscious, that, in a former state, 

 it had been carrying on a work that had done much detriment 

 to my favourite oaks. The mischief was then, however, not 

 so great, at least in the immediate vicinity, as it was the fol- 

 lowing spring, when this litde insect was regarded as a very 

 pest, so perceptible were its ravages in the blackened appear- 

 ance of the oaks, soon after they first put forth their delicate 

 leaves, and began to assume the hues of summer. Indeed, the 

 larvae then became a perfect nuisance : hanging suspended by 

 long silken filaments from each infested tree they had so 

 completely stripped of its leaves as not to leave a sufficient 

 number in which to enclose themselves, and therefore obliged 

 to descend to the undergrowths to seek a habitation, they 

 were ever dangling in the faces of those unfortunate enough 

 to walk unconsciously beneath the far-spreading branches. 

 Nor were they less unpleasant when they issued from the 

 chrysalis; coming forth in such numbers that they produced 

 a sense of suffocation in those that wandered amidst them, 

 as they covered the leaves of the underwoods, and fluttered 

 in countless multitudes around. It was then a subject of re- 

 joicing to see them preyed upon by their natural enemy, the 

 jE'mpis livida, an insect of less than their own size, that, fixing 

 on one something in the manner of the stoat upon a hare 

 or rabbit, would in this way fly about with it until it had 

 sucked its juices, and would then discard it for another. This 

 year the destruction is yet more terrible ; and those that have 

 not witnessed it will find it impossible to conceive the dismal 

 appearance that is thus given to the features of a really beau- 

 tiful country. To see whole woods of oak looking like the 

 blighted forest of the Eastern tale, stretching forth blackened 

 and dark, when all else is green and luxuriant, is at once 

 painful to the eye and to the feelings, at a season when we 

 expect nothing but loveliness; when the fair sun is shining 

 clearly and brilliantly on a scene that would, without this 

 cheerless blot, be almost perfection. 



Examine an individual oak more closely, and the sight be- 

 comes yet more revolting. It is covered with the remains of 

 skeleton leaves, curled up, and surrounded with a filmy web ; 

 its trunk and branches have a misty appearance, as if enve- 

 loped in white gauze ; and here and there hangs suspended 

 a long web, or a caterpillar that has not yet found for itself 

 a habitation in which to undergo its final change. 



