446 



Insect Pests. 



THE GARDEN SWIFT MOTH. 

 (Hepialus lupulinus. Linn.) 



Great damage is often done to the roots and stocks of plants 

 and also to bulbs and corms by the caterpillars of the common 

 Garden Swift Moth. 



As a fruit pest it is mainly the strawberry that suffers from its 

 ravages. From 1894 to 1897 there was a great increase of this 

 insect in many parts of the southern, midland 

 and eastern counties (1). This appears to 

 have been due more to a change of habits 

 than to any great increase in the number of 

 moths, for it has always been a very common 

 species. Curtis (2) called attention to the 

 damage caused by the larvae as far back as 1845. Ormerod (3) and 

 "Whitehead (4) refer to this insect as destructive, but the former states 



FIG. 288. GARDEN SWIFT MOTH. 



[A. V. D. Rintoul. 

 FIG. 2*9. 1'IECE OF STRAWBERRY STOCK EATEN INTO BY 

 GARDEN SWIFT MOTH CATERPILLAR. 



really 



(5) that she had "only once received communication of a 

 serious attack attributable to this caterpillar." 



The family Hepialida-, to which the Garden S \vift belongs, consists 

 of a single genus only, namely, Hepialus. 



Another species, the Ghost Moth (Hepialus hunvuli), does some 

 harm to the hops, but the other three British species are of no 

 economic importance at present. 



The larvje of the Garden Swift are especially harmful in warm 

 winters, when they can work continuously underground unmolested 



