264 OBSERVATIONS ON 



PHAL^ENA QUERCUS. 



Most of our oaks are naked of leaves, 

 and even the Holt in general, having been 

 ravaged by the caterpillars of a small pha- 

 Icena which is of a pale yellow colour. 

 These insects, though a feeble race, yet, 

 from their infinite numbers, are of won- 

 derful effect, being able to destroy the 

 foliage of whole forests and districts. At 

 this season they leave their aurclia, and 

 issue forth in their fly-state, swarming and 

 covering the trees and hedges. 



In a field at Greatham, I saw a flight 

 of swifts busied in catching their prey near 

 the ground ; and found they were hawking 

 after these pkaltente. The aurelia of this 

 moth is shining and as black as jet; and 

 lies wrapped up in a leaf of the tree, which 

 is rolled round it, and secured at the ends 

 by a web, to prevent the maggot from 

 falling out. WHITE. 



I suspect that the insect here meant 

 is not the phalcena quercus, but the phal<zna 



