CATERPILLARS. 369 



ten or twelve hours in the day, and a great number during 

 the night, we need not wonder at their extensive ravages 

 upon the substances on which they feed. It may be 

 interesting, however, to give a few examples of their 

 destructiveness ; and with this view it will be convenient 

 to consider them under the three popular names of cater- 

 pillars, grubs, and maggots. 



Caterpillars, 



The ravages of caterpillars are amongst the most conspicu- 

 ous 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 destructive as those which are of considerable 

 magnitude. During the summer of 1827 we were told that 

 an extraordinary hlight had suddenly desti'oyed the leaves of 

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

 thither, we found the report had been little exaggerated ; 

 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 sur- 

 prised when we discovered, on examination, that this 

 extensive destruction had been eifected 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 number, therefore, of 

 these caterpillars must have been almost "beyond concep- 

 tion ; 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. (J. E.) 



Instances like this, however, from solitary species, are 

 we believe, less common than those of the ravages of 

 gregarious caterpillars. In 1826, colonies of the buff-tip 

 {Pygcera bucephala, Ochsenheim) were in some parts of the 

 country very abundant. We remarked them particularly 



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