EBIOOAMPA LIMACINA. 225 



of a greenish-yellow colour, but this is obscured by a 

 thick, black, olive-coloured resinous secretion, which 

 covers the body all over. It is much broader before 

 tban behind ; the thorax and base of abdomen, too, 

 being higher than the rest of the abdomen ; the thorax 

 arching over the head to a certain extent. Its shape 

 is in fact not unlike a pear, and in its general appear- 

 ance closely resembles a slug ; hence the name given 

 to it of the " slug worm." The head is black, and 

 bears a few hairs ; the mouth yellowish ; the legs are 

 short and stumpy, and brownish in colour. The ventral 

 legs are coloured like the body. At the last moult 

 the slimy secretion is lost and the head becomes of the 

 same colour as the body ; the eye spots being black. 



The larvse feed on the upper side of the leaf usually 

 to the number of three or four. They eat only the 

 upper epidermis ; at first the leaf gets eaten in patches, 

 but ultimately every particle of green is devoured so 

 that it has the appearance of having been scorched ; 

 and ultimately it falls to the ground. When they 

 appear in great numbers (as they unfortunately too 

 often do) in hot weather, the noise they make in 

 feeding is said to resemble the falling of drops of rain 

 on the leaves. They are very sluggish, and their 

 sluggishness is only surpassed by their voracity. The 

 usual time for the appearance of the larvse is about the 

 middle of June, and from that time they are found in 

 more or less abundance to the end of September or 

 even October. The small black cocoon is spun in the 

 ground : when the larva? are very numerous, the 

 cocoons are spun close to each other. 



The damage done by these ugly brutes to fruit trees 

 is very often immense; especially is this the case 

 during very dry seasons. They are found on most 

 species of Pyrus, Prunus, Cerasus, Rubus and Amyg- 

 dalus, as well as Cratcegus, Quercns, and Betula. 



Various remedies have been tried for their extermi- 

 nation, such as sprinkling sand, ashes, lime and 

 powdered hellebore, but with no great success. Good 



VOL. i. 15 



