170 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



cluster brought away contained no less than forty cocoons, but 

 the majority consisted of from seven to fifteen. All as usual 

 were covered by a loose, dull, reddish-brown, coarse silk — sa 

 different from that which forms the winter and summer larval 

 tents, which is dirty grey. Some larvae, however, were not 

 much more than half grown. Many years ago I remember it 

 defoliated the Sea Buckthorn on and near Eye Golf Course. 

 I have also on many occasions taken a few tents of larvae at 

 Sandwich and Deal, but have never seen such countless masses 

 of the larvas as occurred near Littlestone since its well-known 

 attack on the fruit plantations of East Kent in 1901. About 



Sea Buckthorn defoliated by the Brown-Tail Moth, showing " tents." 



the same time I visited these sandhills in 1915 and found only 

 three tents — one at Eye and two at Littlestone. Capt. A. 

 DufHeld, M.C., who was collecting with me, found this moth 

 occurring in great numbers on the coast across the Channel. It 

 appears to be a littoral species, and its occasional outbreaks 

 inland do not last long. Yet its introduction into America 

 seems to show it can flourish far away from the sea. 



In spite of a good wind blowing and moving about amongst 

 the younger growths, I found no ill-effects from the " urticating " 

 hairs of the larvae ; on the other hand, Capt. Duffield suffered 

 from this well-known form of pseudo-urticaria. 



Besides this moth there were also many larvae of the Gold 

 Tail Moth {Portliesia similis). I also brought aw^ay two other 

 caterpillars which occurred in small numbers, both unknown to me.. 



