Caterpillars. 355 



summer of 1829, seem to have nearly annihilated the lackeys, 

 which in the early part of the summer swarmed on every 

 hedge around London. The ignorance displayed in France, 

 at the time in question, was not inferior to that recorded by 

 Curtis ; for the French journalists gravely asserted that part 

 of the caterpillars were produced by spiders ; and that these 

 spiders, and not the caterpillars, constructed the webs of the 

 slime of snails, which they were said to have been seen 

 collecting for the purpose ! " Verily," exclaims Keaumur, 

 "there is more ignorance in our age than one might 

 believe." 



It is justly remarked by Curtis, that the caterpillar of the 

 brown-tail moth is not so limited a feeder as some, nor so 

 indiscriminate as others; but that it always confines itself 

 to trees or shrubs, and is never found on herbaceous plants, 

 whose low growth would seldom supply a suitable founda- 

 tion for its web. Hence the absurdity of supposing it 

 would attack the herbage of the field, and produce a famine 

 among cattle. Curtis says, it is found on the " hawthorn 

 most plentifully, oak the same, elm very plentifully, most 

 fruit-trees the same, blackthorn plentifully, rose-trees the 

 same, bramble the same, on the willow and poplar scarce. 

 None have been noticed on the elder, walnut, ash, fir, or 

 herbaceous plants. With respect to fruit-trees the injuries 

 they sustain are most serious, as, in destroying the blossoms 

 as yet in the bud, they also destroy the fruit in embryo; 

 the owners of orchards, therefore, have great reason to be 

 alarmed." 



The sudden appearance of great numbers of these cater- 

 pillars in particular years, and their scarcity in others, is 

 in some degree explained by a fact stated by Mr. Salisbury. 

 " A gentleman of Chelsea," he says, " has informed me that 

 he once took a nest of moths and bred them ; that some of 

 the eggs came the first year, some the second, and others of 

 the same nest did not hatch till the third season."* We 

 reared, during 1829, several nests both of the brown-tails 

 and of the golden-tails, and a number of the females 



* Salisbury, Hints on Orchards, p. 53 



