20 CORN AND GRASS. 
could hear of, and they did not attract any public notice. Compared 
with last year, the attacks in both localities named were insignificant.” 
—(R. 8.) 
The chief points of interest in this attack, independently of its 
great extent in the first year of its appearance, appear to me, firstly, 
as shown by the paper (see p. 382) on the Spotted Daddy Longlegs or 
Crane Fly (the Tipwla maculosa scientifically), that, bad as the mischief 
is that is caused by the grubs of the Antler Moth, yet that the whole 
of the destruction on the pastures is not always to be laid to their 
charge; and secondly, that although by those not accustomed to notice 
insect presence, excepting when in full career of ravage, the great out- 
burst of 1894, and presumably the lesser one of 1895, were looked on 
as sudden and unaccountable appearances, yet this was not the case ; 
both had their forerunners. 
On the 7th of July, 1894, Mr. Robert Service, of Maxwelltown, 
Dumfries, a perfectly well qualified local observer,* remarked, regarding 
the presence of this ‘hill-grub’’:—‘ Just now complaints are rife 
from farms in many parts of the wide district lately ravaged by the 
Voles. As usual, the farmers look on these ‘hill-grubs’ as very 
sudden arrivals, but this is not the case, for last autumn [18938, Ep.] 
the moths which these larve produce were in extraordinary swarms, 
and far in advance of their normal numbers.” And in the following 
year (1894), on the 31st of August, Mr. Service wrote to myself, that 
‘©on Thursday (yesterday) I saw a wonderful sight on a hill-side in 
Upper Nithsdale, on a farm where the ‘ hill-grubs’ had not been con- 
spicuously present. About 10 a.m., when I arrived at a place where 
Juncus squarrosus was the prevailing plant, the Antler Moths were in 
full flight,—in thousands and thousands,—in all directions. This 
flight continued till well after midday, when it in a great measure 
ceased, although the moths were to be seen here and there the whole 
afternoon. Just before the gloaming they began to fly very nume- 
rously.”’—(R. §.) 
How far alternating appearance of grubs and moths may have 
occurred elsewhere in the infested district, we do not know, not having 
the benefit (except in the above various local observations) of the 
notes of a skilled entomologist; but so far as they extend the above 
records are valuable for future guidance ; and precise coincidence of 
locality in moth and grub is not of great importance in considerations 
of this kind in a greatly infested district, more especially in a case of 
this nature, where the larve are notable for their migratory powers. 
The figure at p. 18 shows the size and markings of the moth and 
caterpillars. The former takes its name from the somewhat antler-like 
markings on the brown fore wings; the hinder wings are brown or 
* See ‘‘ Notes for Naturalists,”’ in ‘ Dumfries Courier and Herald,’ J uly 7th, 1894, 
