Insects, By^ 



discover what their object was in so industriously haunting 

 this spot. They were not depositing eggs ; for this operation 

 I saw the female moth perform in a different place. On the 

 heath there are many heaps of stones, and the insect, poising 

 itself on its wings over them, with a slight bend of the body, 

 deposited her eggs on a species of Galium (probably the G. 

 saxatile) which springs up between the stones, and on which 

 plant the larvae feed. This moth, from its restless habits, is 

 not very readily caught; it dashes off the instant you approach ; 

 but, by stationing yourself near a flower it frequents, and, 

 remaining perfectly still, it will come close [see VI. 223.], and 

 enable you to see its long proboscis, which, except when feed- 

 ing, is always curled up. Like many other insects, it counter- 

 feits death ; but, the instant an opportunity offers for escape, 

 it never fails to take advantage of it. — O. Clapton, January, 

 1834 



Tortiix viridana on the Foliage of Oak Trees. (V. 669. 

 753.) — The oak woods in the Beulah grounds at Norwood 

 have, for the last three years, suffered from this insect ; and, 

 besides the beauty of the foliage not being restored until 

 past midsummer, the growth of the oaks has, of course, been 

 greatly retarded. — J. D, Smith, Beulah Park, Norwood, 

 Jan, 9. 1833. 



A writer in the Gardener's Magazine (v. 610.) describes the 

 ravages, in June, 1829, of an immense number of insects of 

 this species, on the foliage of a fine coppice of natural oak, in 

 the mountains beyond Machynlleth in Wales. 



Sir William Jardine, in his edition of White's Seldom c, 

 p. 114-., states that this insect, *' while in the larva state, does 

 considerable damage to the young oak copses in Scotland ; " 

 and he names, as places, " about Inverary, and near Loch 

 Katrine." White himself has accurately spoken on this 

 insect and its habits and ravages, but by the name of Pha- 

 lae^na quercus. Markwick, in his notes on the History of 

 Selhorne, has shown the identity of the Phalae^na quercus of 

 White with the Phalae^na (T6rtrix) viridana of authors. He 

 supplies, too, additional facts on the insect's habits. In 

 Brown's edition of White's Selhorne (noticed VI. 133.), Mark- 

 wick's identification is printed in p. 311., and not disputed ; 

 and yet a cut (not a good one) of the Phalae^na quercus (La- 

 siocampa quercus) is introduced into the text (in p. 310.). A 

 cut of the Tortrix viridana would surely have been more 

 judicious, useful, and correlative, either alone, to the exclusioi. 

 of that of the Phalae^na quercus, for the sake of illustrating 

 the text and note, or in company with that of the Phalae'na 



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