THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 71] NOVEMBER, MDCCCLXIX. [Price Gd. 



Life-history of the Goat-moth. By Edward Newman. 



It would seem not to be generally known that there exists, 

 concealed within the trunks of our fruit and forest trees, 

 a host of insect enemies which mine the solid wood, and 

 leave behind them nothing but their sawdnst-like excrement 

 and inevitable decay. I suppose these depredators to be 

 generally unknown, — I do not mean unknown to entomolo- 

 gists, — because I receive such numerous requests to explain 

 what they are, and whence they come, whenever an occasional 

 specimen has been exposed to observation by the breaking of 

 a bough or the felling of a tree. We have three very dis- 

 tinct families of these mischievous creatures, which I had the 

 pleasure of first associating, in 1832, into one tribe or natural 

 order of moths, under the name of Xyleutites or carpenters. 

 The moths produced from these carpenters are wonderfully 

 dissimilar, the caterpillars and chrysalids wonderfully alike. 

 Having elsewhere entered somewhat into the distinctive 

 characters of these families, or in other words "having done 

 the scientific," I do not feel disposed to enter further on that 

 branch of my subject at present, more especially as I am by 

 no means satisfied with my knowledge of the group : a glance 

 at the pupa of Hepialus Humuli leads me to desire that the 

 swifts should be admitted among the carpenters ; and there 

 are certain genera even among the Tineaj who might set up 

 a fair claim to admission into this most mischievous asso- 

 ciation. But my business at present is exclusively with the 

 goat-moth. 



There is a large tract of land lying to the south of the 

 Thames and of Rotheihithc, and extending nearly to the 

 Kent Road, occupied principally by market-gardens and 

 rope-yards : this is known by the name of the " Jamaica 

 Level." Within ray recollection this tract rejoiced in mag- 

 nificent orchards of pear-trees ; and its ditches, many of them 



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