CHAP. CV. CORYLA‘CEX. QUE’RCUS. 1819 
small solitary leaf-rollers (7'értrix viridana Haworth): for one of this sort 
seldom consumes more than four or five leaves, if so much, during its exist- 
ence. The number, therefore, of these caterpillars must have been almost 
beyond conception; and that of the moths, the previous year, must also have 
been very great; for the mother moth only lays from 50 to 100 eggs, which 
are glued to an oak branch, and remain during the winter. It is remarkable, 
that, in this wood, during the two following summers, these caterpillars did not 
abound.” (Insect Trransform., p. 203.) The moth (ce) varies in the expansion of 
its wings from 7 to 13 lines: the anterior wings are pale green, with a whitish 
margin in front; and the posterior wings brownish. It is so extremely abun- 
dant, that, towards the end of the month of June, when it first appears, it 
may be shaken from the trees in perfect showers. The caterpillar (a) of this 
moth rolls up the oak leaves in a very ingenious manner, so as to form a very 
commodious retreat; in which, indeed, it ordinarily resides, the centre of the 
roll being open: its diameter is proportionable to that of the body of the 
insect ; and the roll is secured by various little packets of silk attached to the 
body of the leaf, and to the adjoining part of the roll, as represented in 
Jig. 1647. at 6. Réaumur, in the second volume of his Mémoires, has given a 
very detailed account of the manceuvres employed by the caterpillars in the 
construction of these leafy rolls. These caterpillars were so numerous in 
Kensington Gardens in May and June, 1832, that “the excrementitious matter 
from them kept falling and tinkling on the grass below, so frequently as to 
give the idea of a sprinkling of rain being then falling.” (Mag. Nat. Hist., v. 
p- 671.) Millions of small lead-coloured caterpillars, tinted with green, and 
slightly hairy, were then some of them half an inch long, and depending on 
threads stretching to the length of 7 ft. or 8ft. In some cases, a colony of 
fifty or a hundred of these insects appears to set off all at once from some point 
in a branch, and each to make the best of his way to the earth, the threads 
diverging into numerous different lengths, apparently according to the age and 
vigour of the caterpillar. At Haslemere, in 1830, 1831, and 1832, the ravages 
committed by this insect were so great, that whole woods of oaks were stripped 
of their leaves, and looked as if blighted by lightning. Each tree was “ covered 
with the remains of skeleton leaves, curled up, and surrounded with a filmy 
web: its trunk and branches had a misty appearance, as if enveloped in white 
gauze; while here and there hung suspended a long web, or a caterpillar that 
had not yet found a habitation for itself in which to undergo its final change.” 
(1bid., p. 670.) This insect is the same as that noticed in Brown’s edition 
of White’s Selborne, p. 311., in a note of the late Mr. Markwick. In the 
Gardener’s Magazine for 1829 (vol. v. p.610.), a writer, describing the ravages 
of this insect on the oak woods in Wales, says the coppices appeared to be 
all alive with them, so immense were the masses they formed, These insects, 
notwithstanding their numbers, appear, in their moth state, to have many 
enemies. White says that he saw a flight of swifts busily employed in 
“ hawking them ;” and, ip the Magazine of Natural History (vol. v. p, 670.), it 
is stated that the Z’mpis livida, an insect of something less than their own size, 
fixes on them, “ something in the manner that.a stoat would on a hare or rab- 
bit,” and flies about with its victim, but never lets it go till it has destroyed it. 
Amongst the Butterflies, Thécla quércus, or the purple hair-streak, is the 
only species which feeds upon the oak in the larva state; its caterpillar is 
small, and bears considerable resemblance to a woodlouse, being one of the 
onisciform larvae. One which M. Lyonnet (Recherch. sur ? Anat., §c., de différ. 
Espéces d@’ Insectes, 2™° part. pl. 36.) reared ceased to eat on the Ist of June; 
it then assumed a rounded form, and in three days arrived at the chrysalis 
state, without spinning any cocoon; and on the 27th of the same month 
the butterfly appeared. In its final state, it is an active elegant insect, 
sporting about the highest twigs of the oak. It is about 14 in. in the 
expansion of the wings, which are of a bluish black on the upper side in the 
males ; but in the females they are black, with a rich glossy blue disk. Owing 
to their smaller size, and more brilliant colouring, the females have been by 
