906 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUAf. PART III. 



little milk-white silken case, in which, after a few weeks, he becomes a chry- 

 salis, and in this state remains throughout the winter, and until the following 

 June, unless some unlucky black-headed tit, running up the trunk, peeping into 

 every cranny, and whistling out his merry see-saw, happens to spy him; in 

 which case, he is plucked without ceremony from his retreat, and his last 

 moments are spent in the bird's crop. But, supposing no such ill-fortune 

 betide him, by the middle of June he is again on the wing, and hovering round 

 the young apples on a midsummer evening, as before. By burning weeds in 

 your garden, at this time of year, you will effectually drive away this littb 

 moth. If you have trees the crops of which you value, make a smoking (mind, 

 not a blazing) fire under each. It w ill put you to some inconvenience if your 

 garden be near your house ; but the apples will repay you for that." 



The little grey Moth (Yponomeuta pad^lla Lat., Tinea padella L.) makes 

 great havock on hedges of tiie conmion hawthorn, on apple trees, and on many 

 other trees and shrubs. Speaking of this insect, Mr. Main observes, " Wher- 

 ever the caterpillars seat themselves, they appear to be congregated in vast 

 numbers : every spray is covered. The leaves vanish before them ; so that by 

 midsummer, not only single trees, but whole orchards, and entire hedges, from 

 end to end, are completely defoliated. Their depredations cease when they 

 change into the pupa state ; leaving the trees covered w ith the webs (or, rather, 

 silky threads) by which tiie caterpillars had transported themselves from place 

 to place, and every leaf shriveled, as if scorched by fire. These effects are 

 familiarly known to many ; but not so, or less so, have iiithcrto been the 

 following points in the insect's economy : the time and place in which the 

 mother moth deposits her eggs; the time at which the caterpillars are hatched 

 from the eggs; and their course of feeding, from the time of being hatched, 

 to the time at which the effects of their ravages command our observation 

 of them. These points have been elucidated by the investigations of the 

 late Mr. E. W. Lewis, and by his brother, Mr. 11. II. Lewis. From a 

 communication on this subject by the latter gentleman, published in the 

 Transactions of the Entomological Societi/ of London, we quote the following 

 particulars : — ' The mother moth deposits her eggs in the preceding year, 

 generally on the small twigs, and chiefly on their under surface, in a circular 

 patch about Ih line in diameter, which she covers over with a strong gluten, 

 at first of a pale yellow, but which is afterwards, by the action of the atmo- 

 sphere and rain, changed to a dark brown, ver}- closely resembling the 

 bark of the tree, and is then very difficult to be distinguished from it. The 

 eggs hatch early in the autumn (the exact time I did not ascertain : I found 

 them hatched in the beginning of October), and the larvae remain in confine- 

 ment during the whole winter, under the covering which is formed by the 

 gluten and egg-shells. If we now raise up one of these excrescences, we 

 shall find it hollow inside, and containing two dozen or more larv£3e, of a pale 

 yellow colour, with the head and a corneous plate on the first segment black, 

 and about half or two thirds of a line long. In these receptacles they in- 

 crease somewhat in size : the bark of the tree beneath is moist and green ; 

 but whether, or how, they derive nourishment from it, I am at a loss to 

 say. About the time that the trees are coming into leaf, they make their 

 escape ; but they do not now commence spinning wc' .> ; they cannot yet eat 

 the epidermis of the leaves, and they require some protection from the cold 

 and rain, which their tender frames are not yet fitted to endure; to effect 

 which they mine into the leaves, eating the parenchyma [cellular tissue] only, 

 and leaving the epidermis untouched. 



" ' Having acquired sufficient strength to withstand the vicissitudes of the 

 atmosphere, and to devour the epidermis of the leaves, they make their way 

 out; and the anxious gardener, who has hitherto only observed the brown- 

 ness of the leaves, caused by the mining, but which is by him attributed 

 to the withering blast of an "easterly wind, is astounded when he perceives 

 myriads of caterpillars swarming on the trees, and proceeding with alarming 

 rapidity in their devastating course. The fact of their mining sufficiently 



