338 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



tree was not round ; the length of the block was 2 feet. I 

 had a large earthen pot in which I was desirous of placing 

 the mass intact, but found it impossible ; though rather more 

 than 2 feet deep, it was only 16 inches wide. I therefore cut 

 the block down to the necessary size, and in so doing dis- 

 irabedded twelve full-grown caterpillars, twenty-one of two 

 years' growth, and thirty-four of apparently one year's growth 

 — a total of sixty -seven ; and apparently the remainder of 

 the block was as densely populated as the part I cut up. 

 The upper part of the bhnk where sawn off had no traces of 

 holes. The lower part was two-thirds as rotten as tinder, the 

 other third having a few holes only visible. The centre that 

 I exposed to view was riddled." ('Intelligencer,' vol. x. p. 



14). 



This gives a truthful and perfectly unexaggerated idea of 

 the destructive powers of this insect. 1 much prefer these 

 numbers and measurements to any vague terms, as "enormous," 

 "numberless," "myriads," "inniiense," and so forth. One 

 can't help believing in statistics so carefully prepared, while 

 we discredit the superlative from its very vagueness. Mr. 

 Hind supplemented this account with another of a similar 

 " grubbery" found on cutting down a tree in the grounds of 

 the Toxopholite Society in Regent's Park ; in this instance 

 sixty caterpillars were found in company. No sooner are 

 these caterpillars exposed than a most pungent odour of he- 

 goats is n)ade manifest, — an odour peculiarly offensive lo 

 some olfactories,— and hence arose the name of " goat-moth" 

 given by common consent to this destructive insect. 



I have already said that the caterpillar of the goat-moth 

 lives (or three years. This fact seems clearly established by 

 the three ditJerent sizes of caterpillar which are almost 

 • invariably found in company. A few, very few, experiments 

 have been made to keep it for so long a period with the view 

 of testing this ; and it is quite certain that these have 

 resulted in strengthening the belief in this prolonged 

 existence. 



During the whole of their larval life the creatures continue 

 to gnaw the wood, convening it into sawdust, and discharging 

 it in that state entirely unaltered, except by the abstraction 

 of the starch, a fact discovered by Mr. Spencer, who thus 

 describes his discovery in the pages of the 'Zoologist': — 



