SMALL OR GARDEN SWIFT MOTH. 261 



at the roots of Strawberries and Kaspberries; amongst kitchen 

 garden crops it infests Celery, Lettuce, Parsnip, and Potato ; 

 but it is obvious that no local preventive applications can be 

 trusted to for keeping off attack, as the presence of the moths 

 is so very general. They are especially recorded as being 

 found at laying time hovering over grassy places, and I have 

 had the caterpillars from grass land being ploughed up in 

 February. In October I have had them from Clover leys, 

 where they were found in such numbers that the farm bailiff 

 asked for information, as the ground he was ploughing up 

 " was covered with them." Similarly, I have had them in 

 November from the surface soil of land being ploughed after 

 Peas, and in spring from winter Beans put in after Wheat, 

 and looking at the variety of crop subject to this infestation, 

 it seems a hopeless matter to find any preventive measures 

 against egg-laying. 



The caterpillar is of the shape figured at p. 260 when full- 

 grown ; about four-fifths of an inch in length ; cylindrical ; 

 white or yellowish white, with the head and the plates or 

 collar on the segment next to it of some shade of brown ; and 

 the usual dots on the body dark or of a pale yellowish tint, 

 each of these with a stiff black hair ; and the spiracles black. 

 Earlier in their lives, these four dots on the back of each 

 segment after that next the head are dark. The caterpillars 

 are sixteen-footed, — that is, with three pairs of claw-feet on 

 the segments next the head, four pairs of sucker-feet beneath 

 the body, and one pair beneath the tail. They are somewhat 

 variable in colouring, even to being entirely ivithout any tint 

 on the spots. 



The chrysalis is of a somewhat long cylindrical shape, as 

 figured at p. 260; shiny and very sensitive; and in colour of 

 some shade from ochreous to pale reddish brown, darker on 

 the head and wings ; and showing the shape of the forming 

 moth, and of the legs and wings within it very clearly. 



The moth is variable, both in size and colouring ; the 

 spread of the fore wings may be from an inch to an inch and 

 a half ; and the colouring may appear wholly of a dirty pale 

 brownish, or, if characteristic, be of a clay colour or pale 

 brown, " with a whitish streak from the base towards the 

 inner margin, and an interrupted whitish streak from near 

 the inner margin to the apex." As the names differ as much 

 as the varieties, I have taken Professor Westwood's name of 

 the " Small Swift," which distinguishes it well from the much 

 larger kind (the " Ghost Moth" or " Hop Swift"), the cater- 

 pillar of which specially attacks Hop roots. The name of 

 " Swift " is given on account of the rapidity of the flight. The 

 moths may be seen in the evening by hedgerows or grassy 



