RAVAGES OF CATERPILLARS. 203 



conspicuous of insect depredations, in consequence 

 of their being- committed upon the leaves of trees, 

 bushes, and plants, which are often stripped as bare 

 as in winter. Even the smaller sorts of caterpillars 

 become, from their multiplicity, sometimes as destruc- 

 tive as those which are of considerable magnitude. 

 During- the summer of 1827 we were told that an extra- 

 ordinary blight had suddenly destroyed the leaves of 

 all the trees in Oak-of-Honour Wood, Kent. On going 

 thither, we found the report had been little exagge- 

 rated ; for though it was " in the leafy month of 

 June," there was scarcely a leaf to be seen on the 

 oak-trees, which constitute the greater portion of the 

 wood. But we were rather surprised when we dis- 

 covered, on examination, that this extensive destruc- 

 tion had been effected by one of the small solitary 

 leaf-rollers {Tortrix viridana, Haworth)*; for one 

 of this sort seldom consumes more than four or five 

 leaves, if so much, during its existence. The num- 

 ber, therefore, of these caterpillars, must have been 

 almost beyond conception ; and that of the moths, 

 the previous year, must also have been very great ; 

 for the mother moth only lays from fifty to a hundred 

 eggs, which are glued to an oak branch, and remain 

 during' the winter. It is remarkable that in this 

 wood during the two following summers these cater- 

 pillars did not abound f. 



Instances like this, however, from solitary species, 

 are, we believe, less common than those of the ravages 

 of gregarious caterpillars. In 1S26, colonies of the 

 butf-tip {Pygcera bucepliala, Ochsenheim.) were in 

 some parts of the country very abundant. We re- 

 marked them particularly at Harrow-on-the-Hill, and 

 at Compton-Basset in Wiltshire. From their feeding 

 in company, they strip a tree, branch after branch, 



* See figures of this caterpillar and Us moth in ' Insect Archi- 

 tecture,' pp. 162-3. t J. R. 



