376 RAVAGES OF INSECTS. 



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 number of the females depo- 

 sited their eggs in our nnrse-cages ; but, contrary to the 

 experiment just quoted, all of these were hatched during 

 the same autumn. (J. E.) The difference of temperature 

 and moisture in particular seasons may produce this diver- 

 sity. 



An alarm, similar to those we have recorded, was pro- 

 duced in France in 1735 by the green-striped caterpillars 

 of a moth very common in Britain, called by collectors, 

 from a mark on its upper wings, the Y, or more properly 

 the y moth {Phisia Gamma, Ochs.). Though ranked in 

 some classifications amongst the nocturnal moths, it flies 

 chiefly by day, and may be seen in Battersea-fields, or other 

 moist meadows, flitting from herb to herb and flower to 

 flower, in short and low flights ; for it seldom soars higher 

 than the tallest grass-stem, or the crimson flower-heads of 

 the knap-weed, upon whose honey it sometimes regales, re- 

 maining on the wing all the while it is sipping it. During 

 the cold rainy summer of 1829 it was almost the only 

 moth which appeared plentiful. (J. E.) At least two 

 broods seem to be produced during the season ; which may 

 account for its being found from Ma}^ till the setting-in of 

 the winter frosts. 



Notwithstanding its being so plentiful, however, w^e have 

 not heard of its having ever been so destructive here as in 

 France, where, as usual, the most improbable causes were 

 assigned for its increase. " In some places," says Eeaumur, 

 "they assured me they had seen an old soldier throw the 

 spell; and in other places an ugly and mischievous old 

 woman had wrought all the evil."t These supposed super- 

 natural agents, however, must have been either very nume- 

 rous or very active to fill, not only the gardens, but every 

 field, with legions of those caterpillars, which devoured 

 ahnost every green thing, and left only the stalks as monu- 

 ments of their devastation. The alarm proceeded farther, 



* SalifciLury, Hints on Orcliards, p. Do. f Eraunuir, ii. 33G. 



