GOAT MOTH. 293 



timber. Infested trees may be easily recognised by the bad 

 odour due to the caterpillars, and by the wood-chips thrown 

 out from their borings, which are of various sizes up to the 

 thickness of a man's finger. 



d. Protective Rules. 



As for Sesia. Bats, owls, and goat-suckers attack the moths. 

 Saplings which have been attacked should be felled, split, 

 and burned with the caterpillars they contain. 



2. Cossus aescidi, L. (Wood-leopard Moth). 



a. Description. 



Moth with a spread of wings of 45 50 mm. (<?), 55 65 

 mm. ( ? ) ; white with numerous round steel-blue spots on the 

 wings and six on the thorax ; abdomen long, deep blue with 

 white rings. Larva naked, yellow with black warts and dorsal 

 shield, 16-legged. Pupa with rings of spines. 



l>. Life-history, etc. 



The eggs are laid singly on saplings or branches of broad- 

 leaved trees. The larva emerges in August, bores into the 

 sap wood in the first year, passes the winter in the stem, and 

 in the second summer excavates a gallery running upwards 

 along the middle of the wood. In this it passes the second 

 winter, eventually pupating under the bark. Generation bien- 

 nial. It attacks many species of trees, maple, ash, lime, 

 apple, birch, beech, oak, horse-chestnut, elm, poplars and 

 willows, and has even been found in mistletoe. 



It is widely distributed, though rarely very abundant; 

 sometimes it is rather common and injurious in the neigh- 

 bourhood of large towns such as London. 



Treatment consists in the cutting and burning of the infested 

 stems and branches. 



FAMILY III. BOMBYCIDAE. 



Description of Family. 



Antennae short, pectinate in both sexes (simply pectinate 

 in ? , doubly in $ ) ; ocelli usually absent. Proboscis small 



