INJURIES IN THE OLD WORLD. 275 



that they had been more or less abundant for three years in 

 succession. The first year there were not very many, the 

 second they were comparatively numerous and the third year 

 they were present in overwhelming numbers. Some of the 

 coumion people thought that the caterpillars grew out of the 

 ground, like the grass ; others thought that they were cre- 

 ated by the evil one ; still others assured the author that they 

 had seen with their own eyes thousands of the caterpillars 

 brought by the wind ; and, finally, there were many who 

 thought these caterpillars were sent by God as a punishment 

 for their sins. The author states that about eleven years be- 

 fore, he saw this same species in Saxony, after having stripped 

 the leaves from every tree and shrub in the vicinity, feed on 

 grass and grain. 



In the " Naturforscher," Vol. XVI, page 130, 1781, Pas- 

 tor C. J. Rimrod gave a long and very good account of the 

 gypsy moth, and wrote of two invasions at his home in Quen- 

 stedt, one in 1760-61 and the other in 1781. 



Preyssler, as stated by Bechstein, in his " Vollstandige 

 Naturgeschichte der schitdlichen Forstinsekten," page 372, 

 1804, says that the gypsy moth was once very common at 

 Prague, and stripped the leaves from the fruit trees, so that 

 they bore no fruit. Bechstein, in the same place, says that 

 this is a formidable insect, against which very active meas- 

 ures must be taken, for, because of its large brood and great 

 voracity, the damage done by the caterpillars may be easily 

 understood. Linnajus and Fabricius call it the pest of the 

 fruit garden. 



Panzer, in his " Faunte Insectorum Germanicae," Vol. IT, 

 page 22, 1794, says the caterpillars of this insect appeared for 

 many years in frightful numbers, and destroyed the fruit trees 

 to the great injury of their owners. In 1818, the cork-oak 

 forests extending from Barbaste to Podenas, in south-western 

 France, were devastated by innumerable hosts of gypsy moth 

 caterpillars. After having devoured both the leaves and the 

 acorns, they attacked the maize, millet, fodder and all the 

 fruits. Thev even invaded the dwellings in the neisfhborhood 

 of the trees, to the extreme annoyance of the occupants. 



Godart says, in his " Iconographie des Chenilles, Lcs Bom- 

 bycites," published in 1832 : "This caterpillar lives on nearly 



