The Vegetarian Insects 



the aprioot-tree and the cherry-laurel, all of 

 which trees or shrubs belong to the family of 

 the Rosaceae. She varies her domain a 

 little, while remaining faithful to woody veg- 

 etation characterized by a faint flavour of 

 prussic acid. 



The Zeuzera, or Leopard-moth, a large 

 and beautiful white Moth with blue spots, is 

 more general. She is the scourge of most 

 of the trees and shrubs in my enclosure. I 

 find her caterpillar chiefly in the lilac-tree; 

 also in the elm, the plant-tree, the quince, the 

 guelder-rose, the pear-tree and the chestnut. 

 In these, always working upwards, it bores 

 itself straight galleries which turn a branch 

 the thickness of a good-sized bottle-neck into 

 a fragile sheath soon broken by the winter 

 wind. 



To return to the specialists: the Shagreen 

 Saperda exploits the black poplar and accepts 

 nothing else, not even the white poplar; the 

 Spotted Saperda has the elm for its domain; 

 the Scalary Saperda is faithful to the dead 

 cherry-tree. 1 The Great Capricorn lodges 

 her grubs in the oak, sometimes the English 

 oak and sometimes the evergreen oak, or ilex. 



1 For the Saperda-beetles cf. The Glow-worm and 

 Other Beetles: chap. viii. Translator's Note. 

 229 



