220 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS, 



parched, that it had been struck with lightning. On 

 cutting into such branches, however, the cause was 

 uniformly found to be the ravages of the caterpillar 

 of the currant hawk -moth {^geria iipul'iformis , 

 Stephens), which abounds in the vicinity. But we 

 have also remarked that it only occasionally produces 

 this effect upon the trees; for several bushes upon 

 which we have found old pupa-cases projecting from 

 the bark, remained heahhy and uninjured.* Sir 

 Joseph Banks showed JNIr Kirby a currant branch 

 perforated by this caterpillar to the pith, and said the 

 size of the fruit was in consequence diminished. t 

 In Germany it is reported to destroy even large 

 bushes of the red currant. There can be no doubt 

 that the caterpillars of the goat moth frequently 

 destroy willow, poplar, and oak trees, of considerable 

 magnitude; but the mother moth seems to prefer 

 laying her eggs upon those which have already 

 begun to decay. A black poplar tree, not thicker 

 than a man's leg, and stripped on one side of more 

 than a foot of the bark, was bored by above a dozen 

 caterpillars of the clear underwing {JEgeria asili- 

 formis, Stephens), without seeming to have its 

 growth at all retarded.! 



It does not appear that a minute moth, called by 

 Leeuwenhoeck, who writes its history, the wolf, and 

 by Haworth the mottled -woollen {Ph. T'lma grantlla^ 

 LiNxNtEus), is so abundant in Britain as to do much 

 damage to the grain stored in granaries, upon which 

 it feeds. But it seems to have created considerable 

 alarm on the Continent. It has been found near 

 London, and mmj increase with us. The cater- 

 pillar, which is smooth and white, ties together with 

 silk several grains of wheat, barley, rye, or oats, weav- 



* J. R. + Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 197. 



X See Ins. Archit., p. 192. 



