210 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



Curtis ; for the French journalists gravely asserted 

 that part of the caterpillars were produced by spiders; 

 and that these spiders, and not the caterpillars, con- 

 structed the webs of the slin>e of snails, which they 

 were said to have been seen collecting for the pur- 

 pose ! *' Verily," exclaims Reaumur, " there is 

 more ignorance in our asre than one might believe." 



It is justly remarked byCurtis, that the caterpillar of 

 the brown-tail moth is not so limited a feeder as some, 

 nor so indiscriminate as others ; but that it always 

 confines itself to trees or shrubs, and is never found 

 on herbaceous plants, whose low growth would seldom 

 supply a suitable foundation for its web. Hence the 

 absurdity of supposing it would attack the herbage 

 of the field, and j)roduce a famine among cattle. 

 Curtis says it is found on the " hawthorn most plen- 

 tifully, oak the same, elm very plentifully, most fruit- 

 trees the same, blackthorn plentifully, rose-trees the 

 same, bramble the same, on the willow and poplar 

 scarce. None have been noticed on the elder, walnut, 

 ash, fir, or herbaceous plants. With respect to fruit- 

 trees the injuries they sustain are most serious, as, in 

 destroying the blossoms as yet in the bud, they alsc 

 destroy the fruit in embryo ; the owners of orchards, 

 therefore, have great reason to be alarmed.'' 



The sudden appearance of great numbers of these 

 caterpillars in particular years, and their scarcity in 

 others, is in some degree explained by a fact stated 

 by Mr. Salisbury. "A gentleman of Chelsea,'' he 

 says, " has informed me that he once took a nest 

 of moths and bred them ; that some of the eggs 

 came the first year, some the second, and others of 

 the same nest did not hatch till the third season*." 

 We reared, during 1829, several nests both of 

 the brown-tails and of the golden-tails, and a num- 

 ber of the females deposited their eggs in our nurse- 

 * Salisbury, Hints on Orchards, p. 53. 



