THE GOAT MOTH. 455 



appear in orchards year after year, and deprive 

 them of every fruit. The beetle is only about one- 

 third of an inch in length, and is covered with little 

 scales, which cause it to appear as of a deep yellow 

 color. After about a month it is not to be seen : the 

 female has crawled into the soil, and deposited her 

 eggs, which hatch in about three weeks; the grub 

 descends below the frost, and remains torpid during 

 the winter. 



The dragon-fly and several sorts of birds destroy 

 great quantities of this bug ; but when it appears 

 in great numbers, these seem wholly insufficient. 

 The only method of preventing its ravages is to 

 pick it off" by the hand, and shake it into a vessel 

 of hot water. 



III. Diseases which affect the Stem of the 

 Apple Tree. 1. Insects. (1) The horhuj of the Goat 

 Moth — Cossiis ligiiiperdii. This is an insect which 

 attacks, especially, large trees of the apple. It bores 

 holes into the trunk, and, by the admission of air and 

 w^ater, promotes the decay of the tree. The moth 

 is about three inches in the spread of its fore wings, 

 and is of a grayish-brown color, shading into that 

 of a darker hue, and is covered with a quantity of 

 black streaks, which are very narrow and irregular. 

 The posterior wings are darker, with more minute 

 lines ; the thorax is yellow near the head, becoming 

 lighter as it reaches the back, where there is a 

 black bar. 



