29 



After a few days we received a small tin containing eight larvae of 

 Icmocampn qmnrifoUa, L. (Lappet Moth), great fearsome looking 

 creatures it is true, with a note saying that he had had his trees 

 searched bat that was all he could find. Needless to say that his 

 crop was not materially damaged by them. 



And this makes one see, as you will no doubt gather as we go 

 along, that it is not the big things that we easily see that are our 

 greatest enemies, but the little creatures that are not easily noticed 

 that do us the greatest amount of harm. , . o u- • i 



But there is one small family formerly included in this bphingid 

 group the Aeiieriidae (Clearwings), of which less than a dozen 

 occur 'in this country, that we cannot help regarding as harmful 

 The imagines are of small size and their larvae are all internal 

 feeders t^orming their burrows under the bark or in the hard wood of 

 trees or, in the roots of plants. One of them Aeneria tipidiforwiH, CI. 

 (theCurrantClear-wing), feeds, as its name implies, m currant bushes 

 minino- the stems and branches, and will, if left to breed unchecked 

 for a few years, completely ruin the trees. The moth is very fond 

 of feeding at the blossom of privet and such like shrubs in the 

 afternoon sunshine, and where these have been growing near an old 

 currant garden, I have known forty or fifty of the moths taken in 

 the course of an hour, thus considerably reducing the stock; but be 

 surest way of combating their ravages is to cut off all dead or sickly 

 branches from the bushes as soon as they show leaf in the spring. 



Ae wyopifornm, Bkh. (Red-belted Clear-wing), burrows under the 

 bark of apple, pear and some other PyrtiH, and is sometimes 

 sufficently common in old and neglected orchards to detrimentally 

 affect the trees. Ae. formiciformU, Esp. (Red-tipped Clear- wing), 

 affects osiers, and when unusually numerous may seriously damage 

 a whole crop, its burrows in their stems rendering them useless for 

 basket work and similar purposes. The other species feed in oak- 

 birch elder, guelder-rose and such like trees, or in the roots ot 

 Ant/n/lUs, llMwex and Aiweria and may be regarded as harmless. 



The next large group, following the order to which we are most 

 of us accustomed, is the Bombyces (which includes the "ermines, 

 " swifts " " ecrgars " and so forth). They are for the most part very 

 innocent creatures, but some three or four of them can hardly be 

 regarded as our friends. C'o.s.s».s tvw.sN.s, L. (Goat Moth), has 

 a larva, which when full-fed measures nearly four inches in length ; 

 it burrows in the solid wood of trees and spends three years in 

 reaching maturity. Although it will feed upon many trees it 

 appears to be most fond of willows and poplars, and I have known 

 both these trees killed outright by its attacks. Zeiizera pijmui, h. 

 (aevnli L. ) (Leopard Moth), is also a tree-boring species and some- 

 times has taken to apple and pear trees, but is seldom so common 

 as to be a serious menace. The white males of llepudu>^ huundi, L. 

 (Ghost), are familiar objects as they hover over the grass fields on a 



