370 EAVAGES OF IXSECTS. 



at Harrow-on-the-Hill, and at Compton-Basset in Wiltshire. 

 From their feeding in company, they strip a tree, branch 

 after branch, scarcely leaving the fragment of a leaf, till a 

 great portion of it is completely bare. Some of the magni- 

 ficent beeches in Compton Park, from this canse, appeared 



Kavases of the buff-tip caterpillar {Pygcrra hucephala). a, the full-grown caterpillar. 

 b, the moth, c c, a line of voung caterpillars, advancing along a leaf and devouring 

 it half through as they march, d, the eggs. 



with the one-half of their branches leafless and naked, while 

 the other half was untouched. Besides the beech, these 

 caterpillars feed on the oak, the lime, the hazel, the elm, 

 and the willow. When newly hatched they may be readily 

 discovered, from their singular manner of marshalling them- 

 selves, like a file of soldiers, on a single leaf, only eating it 

 half through ; and in their more advanced stage, their 

 gaudy stripes of yellow and black render them very conspi- 

 cuous on the branches which they haA^e nearly stripped 

 bare. The cuckoo feeds as greedily upon them as they do 

 on leaves, and may be seen early in the morning perched 

 in the midst of their colonies, and devouring them by 

 dozens. (J. E.) 



Those caterpillars which feed upon fruit-trees and hedge 



