132 



BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 



further in, is to inject paraffin, by means of a sharp- 

 nozzled syringe, into the tunnel ; any other fluid 

 poisonous to the caterpillar would do just as well ; 

 soft-soap or tobacco-water, for instance, or fumes of 

 anything poisonous, such as sulphur or tobacco, 

 might be applied in the same way ; and a bit of soft 

 clay kept well pressed up to the mouth of the hole, 

 so that it might be forced in like a plug as the syringe 

 or tube was withdrawn, would keep the application 

 from escaping. This seems a very simple thing to 

 name, but for want of it an endless amount of damage 

 goes on to the fruit and forest trees, both at home 

 and in the colonies. Sometimes there are as many 

 as sixty of the Goat Moth caterpillars in one tree. I 

 have myself seen up to that number taken from an 

 Elm, and in such cases felling the tree, and destroying 

 the caterpillars, is the best prevention for the spread 

 of mischief. 



Fig. 105.— Wood Leopard Moth : female, head of male, and 

 cateqjillar. 



The black and white Wood Leopard Moth is another 

 kind, of which the caterpillars do mischief by boring 

 passages in the living wood ; but in this case the 

 branches appear to be more especially attacked, and 

 in my own observations I have found fruit trees more 



