198 THE WOODLANDS. 



bushes. These common examples will illustrate the 

 general appearance of the moths developed from 

 looping caterpillars. We have in Britain more than 

 two hundred and fifty species belonging to this 

 group. The caterpillars of many of them feed on 

 the leaves of forest trees and shrubs, as well as the 

 herbaceous plants which grow beneath them. Some 

 of the moths are called " Pugs," others are 

 " Carpets," others again are called " Waves ;} and 

 " Thorns." To recognize them and their differences 

 must be a work of time and experience. 



By striking the branches of an oak in autumn we 

 shall certainly disturb a small pea-green moth which 

 flutters a little while on the wing, and then settles 

 again, perhaps in some position in which we can gaze 

 upon it leisurely, admire its uniform colour, so nearly 

 like that of the leaves on which it feeds, its peculiar 

 form when the wings are closed, and thus obtain some 

 rude idea of the variety of three hundred different 

 species which inhabit the British Islands. These are 

 called Tortrices, and the larvae of some of them are 

 very destructive. The one to which allusion has just 

 been made sometimes entirely strips an oak of its 

 leaves in June. Others attack fruit-trees, and in 

 France one is destructive to vines. 



It is not unusual to observe two neighbouring leaves- 

 on a shrub fastened together, one over the other, by 

 means of silky threads as fine almost as a spider's 

 web. If these are separated, the small larvag of one 

 of these Tortrices will probably be found busy 

 between them. In the decaying fungi which are 

 found adhering to stumps, larvae like maggots will be 



