404 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



for their swift darting flight and their practice of 

 feeding on the wing. 



Of the Clearwings we are familiar with three species 

 only, The Red Belted Clearwing (Sesia myopceformis), 

 The Currant Clearwing (Sesia tipuliformis}, the cater- 

 pillar of which we have found in great abundance feed- 

 ing on the pith of the young shoots and the smaller 

 branches of the red currant tree, and the Hornet 

 Clearwing of the poplar (Sesia apiformis], which, from 

 its close resemblance to a hornet in size, shape and 

 colour, has no doubt often been mistaken for that 

 insect. In the year 1869 we caught two specimens 

 in one day on the flowers of Pedicularis sylvatica at 

 Downparkes, with no other apparatus than a card box. 



We have captured several specimens of the wood- 

 boring Leopard Moth (Zettzera (Esculi), both in the 

 larval and perfect states, in an old orchard at the 

 Parsonage which no longer exists, and the fine Goat 

 Moth (Cossus ligniperda}, remarkable for its delicately- 

 mottled brown wings, elegantly and finely varied with 

 short wavy streaks across the disk, is not uncommon 

 with us. The caterpillar of this species is a rank- 

 smelling, unamiable, repulsive looking reddish-brown 

 grub, with a black head and very powerful mandibles, 

 with which it is quite capable of punishing the entomo- 

 logical epidermis, and not slow to do so if incautiously 

 handled, a fact which has been very disagreeably im- 

 pressed on our memory. All the larvae of this species 

 that we have met with, and from which we have reared 

 the perfect insect, were oak-wood feeders, and one of 

 them we saw taken from the butt-end of an old gate 

 post in the Park, a foot or more under ground. 



The following extract from the copy of a letter to 

 which we have access, refers to the next species in our 

 list : 



" Would you now have a genuine ghost story ? I 

 can give you one on my own authority, and if you 

 should, as you may, not unreasonably, be disposed to 



