CASE-MOTH OF THE ORANGE. 79 



perceptible. I then obtained a glass-stoppered bottle and 

 held it directly under the descending larvae, when in 

 a few minutes I had it filled with a material not unlike 

 the finest webs of a spider. This is a most singular part 

 in the economy of this insect, as the young larvae at 

 once begin to spin cases for themselves and commence to 

 eat quite voraciously. 



Our drawings will sufficiently explain the insect in 

 many of its stages, these having been taken from nature. 

 The colour of the perfect male, however, is brighter and 

 hardly as dark as that given on our plate, and which 

 fault has occurred in the lithographic printing. Another 

 well-known but smaller species is the Entometa ignobilis 

 having a much shorter, rougher, and less tapering case or 

 nest, but which is almost equally destructive, although I 

 have never yet found it attacking oranges. 



It may be remarked that the male cases of these 

 insects are much smaller than those of the female. 



Prevention and Remedies. 



We have here an insect," the larva of which will attack 

 quite a number of plants, amongst which may be mentioned 

 oranges, lemons, quinces, vines, and especially the Abies 

 group of the Coniferse, also shrubs innumerable. 



Growers of trees will have noticed them to be 

 occasionally swarming with little clusters of leaf-like 

 substances, which are constantly on the move. If they 

 be examined carefully, it will be seen that the moving 

 objects are these insects in their early stages, and even 

 when so small it is surprising the amount of damage they 

 will do in a very short space of time, and if they be kept 

 and fed on green leaves they increase in size with great 

 rapidity. A few of these insects, when nearly full-grown, 

 will strip a good-sized tree of its leaves in a very short time. 



On plum trees, even when deciduous, the young of 

 these case caterpillars are very destructive as they " ring- 

 bark " both the large and small branches of the tree, even 

 extending their operation to the smallest twigs, being 

 especially severe on stems of fruit buds. When the 



