Reports to various Correspondents. 8i 



ash is seen behind in full leaf. This tree was 36 feet high and four feet 

 in circumference six feet from the ground. Two trees, large ashes, 

 50 feet high, in a neighbouring wood were attacked in the same year, 

 and were so damaged that only one or two boughs had leaves this 

 year. On being cut down, the trunks were honeycombed right 

 through the centres. Of trees that are attacked, the elm, the ash, 

 and the willow suffer most. 



Life-history. 



The Goat Moth (Fig. 13, a) varies to some extent in size, the female 

 being from 3 to 3^ inches in expanse of wings, the male from 2| to 3. 

 In build it is stout and clumsy ; the head clothed with dense grey 

 hairs ; the thorax greyish-brown ; the large hairy abdomen has 

 darker transverse bands, and the apical borders of the segments 

 grey ; the broad wings are dark grey and brown with dusky trans- 

 verse streaks, the hind wings ashy-grey to greyish-brown, with some 

 indistinct brown marks, and the antennae are fringed with grey in 

 both sexes. They occur during June and July, and tiy at dusk, but 

 are very inactive, usually depositing their eggs on the trees from 

 which they come. The female has a horny extensile ovipositor, by 

 means of which she places her eggs far in crevices, etc., of the bark 

 of the trees. It is said that one female may lay as many as a 

 thousand eggs (Kollar). Boisduval says as many as seven hundred. 

 Three females kept under observation each deposited between two 

 and three hundred. They were laid in groups varying from fifteen 

 to fifty. On the tree here figured it was observed that the moths 

 always placed their eggs somewhere near the ground, never more 

 than six feet up the trunk. They were always laid at night. In 

 colour the eggs are brown, round, convex above, flattened below, and 

 ribbed; about 1*5 mm. across. In ten days they give rise to the 

 larvffi, which at once burrow under the bark and soon into the wood. 

 The entry of the young larvse can often be detected by moisture 

 (sap) and small fragments of wood appearing in crevices of the 

 bark. The young caterpillar is pink all over, but when mature it 

 is dirty deep ochie-yellow with a broad stripe of rich mahogany red 

 down the back, sometimes rather broken, giving the appearance of 

 large mahogany spots ; the head is deep blackish-brown, and there 

 are two deep brown spots on the first segment, with a few hairs of 

 a pallid colour ; brown legs and yellow prolegs with brown liooks. 

 When full grown they reach from three to three and a half inches in 

 length. They feed for three years, in the tunnels in the wood most of 



G 



