136 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



trees with silk, or to despoil them of their leaves, 

 there were many whose bodies became flabby, 

 elongated, and devoid of roundness. These 

 quickly perished. Every day the mortality became 

 more serious among them. In a short time the 

 larvse, which had previously swarmed upon the 

 trees, became so few, that before ten or twelve 

 days had passed by I could not find a single one, 

 although I looked carefully for them." It is re- 

 markable enough, and sets forth strikingly the 

 short-sightedness and ingratitude of man, that 

 these very showers, which produced what no com- 

 bined efforts of human power could or did effect, 

 were bitterly complained of as inappropriate to 

 the season, at the time when they were falling ! 

 These larvse were hatched from eggs deposited by 

 a common species of moth. 



Although England has been often mercifully 

 spared while continental countries have largely 

 suffered by such visitations as we have last de- 

 cribed, we have not always come off unscathed. 

 The Iarva3 of a moth nearly allied to, if not the 

 same as the last-mentioned, produced an alarm in 

 1782 in our country, perhaps even more exten- 

 sive than the previous one in France. All sorts of 



