GOAT MOTH. 233 



sixty or more of the caterpillars taken from the stem of a 

 yomig Chichester Elm. But the most important injury they 

 cause is the damage to Oak timber. 



The habit of the Goat Moth is to lay her eggs at the lowest 

 part of the tree, and a badly infested tree may often be known 

 by the wood-chips thrown out from the caterpillar-workings, 

 which lie on the ground close to the trunk, as well as by the 

 moisture where sap is oozing from the gnawed-out tunnels ; 

 likewise by the very offensive smell of the caterpillars, which 

 thoroughly impregnates their tunnels and all about them, and 

 from which the Goat Moth takes its name. 



The eggs are laid about the middle of the summer in 

 crevices in the bark, and the caterpillars which hatch from 

 them feed at first in the bark or just within it, and gradually, 

 as they grow, penetrate into the solid wood, where they live 

 for three years, and form chambers and galleries of various 

 size and width, some as large as a man's finger ; and from the 

 great size the caterpillars grow to, likewise the numbers they 

 are sometimes found in, they do great damage, or sometimes 

 entirely kill the tree. 



Caterpillar of Goat Moth (not full-grown). 



The above figure gives the appearance of the caterpillar 

 when about two-thirds grown. When quite young it is pink, 

 almost precisely the colour of a boiled shrimp ; when older it 

 is yellow, with a black head, two black spots on the ring 

 behind the head, and a row of dark reddish patches or a stripe 

 of the same colour along the back. When full-grown the 

 caterpillars are three inches or possibly more in length. 



During the winter they lie quiet, otherwise they feed for a 

 period of three years, and, when ready to change, form 

 cocoons of little bits of wood roughly spun together just inside 

 the entrance of their burrows, in which they turn to a reddish 

 brown chrysalis. Shortly before the moth is ready to emerge 

 the chrysalis forces itself partly through the cocoon, where 

 the empty case remains sticking out from the tree, and is a 

 useful guide as to timber being infested. 



The moth is between three and four inches in the spread of 

 the fore wings, which are mottled with ashy white, and rich 

 brown, with many irregular black streaks and markings ; the 

 hinder wings are of a more dingy colour, with the markings 



