LEPIDOPTERA. 



207 



resents the injuries done to an oak stem or plank. I am indebted to 

 Mr E. G. Wheler, of Claverdon 

 Leys, Warwick, for tills speci- 

 men. 



Mr F. V. Theobald says : — 



" The goat moth larvae are 

 the cause of the damage, for 

 they are not only large but rav- 

 enous creatures, which tunnel 

 right into the heart of the hard- 

 est wood, and in from six to 

 ten years a large tree is com- 

 pletely killed by them, the 

 whole trunk becoming a honey- 

 combed mass. As many as two 

 hundred have been found in a 

 single tree. If once a tree is 

 struck by this pest, it continues „. .,„, , , , , ,, , , , , ^, „ 



J ^ ' iig. VJ'J.—Uuk pill lil ii^jiiiullii) 1,1, III uj hiidt Muth. 



for years (usually until it is 



destroyed) to be a breeding- ground. It is quite erroneous to say 



they only attack sickly trees : perfectly sound and healthy ash and 



Fig. 200.— Cossus ligniperda (Coat Moth). (From 'The Forester,' by J. Nisbet.) 



elm have been observed to be attacked and eventually killed, and 

 then the larvae traced to the nearest tree that is unaffected. Nor are 



