384 RAVAGES OF INSECTS. 



it only occasionally produces this effect npon tlie trees ; 

 for several bushes upon which we have found old pupa- 

 cases projecting from the bark, remained healthy and 

 uninjured. (J. E.) Sir Joseph Banks showed Mr. Kirby a 

 currant branch perforated by this caterpillar to the pith, 

 and said the size of the fruit was in consequence dimi- 

 nished.* In Germany it is reported to destroy even large 

 bushes of the red currant. There can be no doubt that 

 the caterpillars of the goat-moth frequently destroy willow, 

 poplar, and oak trees, of considerable magnitude ; but the 

 mother moth seems to prefer laying her eggs upon those 

 which have already begun to decay. A black poplar tree, 

 not thicker than a man's leg, and stripped on one side of 

 more than a foot of the bark, was bored by above a 

 dozen caterpillars of the clear imderwing (jEgena asiJi- 

 formis, Stepheists), without seeming to have its growth at" 

 all retarded.t 



It does not appear that a minute moth, called by 

 Leeuwenhoeck, who writes its history, the wolf, and by 

 Ha worth the mottled-woollen (PA. Tima gmiiella, Linis^jeus), 

 is so abundant in Britain as to do much damage to the 

 grain stored in granaries, upon which it feeds. But it 

 seems to have created considerable alarm on the Continent. 

 It has been found near London, and mai/ increase with us. 

 The caterpillar, which is smooth and white, ties together 

 with silk several grains of wheat, barley, rje, or oats, 

 weaving a gallery between them, from which it projects its 

 head while feeding ; the grains, as Eeaumur remarks, being 

 prevented from rolling or slipping by the silk which unites 

 them. He justly ridicules the absurd notion of its filing 

 off the outer skin of the wheat by rubbing upon it with its 

 body, the latter being the softer of the two ; and he dis- 

 proved, by experiment, Leeuwenhoeck's assertion that it 

 will also feed on woollen cloth. It is from the end of 

 May till the beginning of July that the moths, which are 

 of a silvery grey, spotted with brown, appear and lay their 

 eggs in granaries. 



* Kirby and Spence, vol. i. j). 197. 

 t See page 1G6. 



