294 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. 



and usually functionless. Wings ample, sometimes small in 

 proportion to the size of the body, roof-shaped at rest. Body 

 stout and long, generally densely hairy, usually larger in the 

 $ . Flight as a rule nocturnal. Eggs frequently laid in 

 clusters, and covered witli hairs from the tail of the ? . Catcr- 

 jnllars usually hairy, seldom naked, witli IG legs. Pupae stout 

 and short, in a cocoon spun out of silk, often with the larval 

 hairs interwoven. 



The caterpillars feed on needles, leaves, etc., and are usually 

 very voracious. Some of the most destructive species of insects 

 in European coniferous forests belong to this family. 



1. Gastropacha pini, Ochsh. {Vine ISIoth).* 

 a. Descripiion. 



Moth with a spread of wings of 60 mm. {S) to 80 mm. ( ? ). 

 Body thick and stout ; fore-wings whitish or brownish grey, 

 in the S with dark reddish-brown transverse bands, and with 

 a long unicolorous patch, in which is a white lunate spot ; in 

 the ? the bands and patch are reddish brown ; the hind- 

 wings in both sexes are rusty brown. The colouring and 

 markings of the wings vary much in individual examples. 



The caterpillar attains a length of 80 mm., has 16 legs, 

 and varies in colour from ash-grey to reddish brown, or dark 

 brown ; there is a dark dorsal stripe, and sometimes a series 

 of lateral white patches. It is hairy with clusters of greyish 

 bristles, and possesses on the 2nd and 3rd segments from the 

 head two steel-blue bare stripes, which become apparent at 

 the second moulting, and are very characteristic. 



Pupa somewhat cylindrical, dark brown, enclosed in an 

 elliptic, whitish grey cocoon, which is pointed at both ends, 

 and of looker texture near the head of the pupa to facilitate" 

 the exit of the moth. 



* This destructive pest is fortunately not a native of Great Britain. It iilays, 

 however, so important a part in the literature of European forcstiy, and has 

 often proved so seriously destructive, that it has been thought desirable not to 

 exclude it entirely from the piesent translation, but (o present an abridgment 

 of Hess's account. 



