DIRECT INJURIES FROM MOTHS. 47 



troublesome and destructive than that above men- 

 tioned, extending its ravages to almost all green 

 things. This celebrated traveller tells us, that in 

 Kasau, a government of European Russia, lying 

 between the 46 20' and 49 4O east longitude, and 

 the 54 and 57 of north latitude, the larva of the 

 Phalcena frumentalis not unfrequently eats the greater 

 part of the spring corn to the root.* 



There is a white moth, the caterpillar of which is 

 a great nuisance to the sugar planters ; it is called 

 the Borer, and makes dreadful havock amongst the 

 sugar canes of many of the colonies. The Society 

 of Arts offered a reward of fifty guineas to any one 

 who could invent a method for their destruction ; 

 but no effectual plan has yet been devised for expel- 

 ling them. 



While on this subject, I may mention an insect, 

 although of a different order, which, in the West 

 Indies, commits still more dreadful havock. A 

 frightful picture of their depredations is recorded in 

 the Philosophical Transactions. -J- This is a species 

 of ant, (the Formica saccharivora of Linnaeus,) 

 which does not prey upon the sugar canes, but makes 

 its nest under the roots, and injures them so much, 

 that they soon become unhealthy and unproductive. 

 About eighty- five years ago, these destructive 

 creatures were produced in the island of Granada 

 in such inconceivable numbers, as totally to ruin the 



* PALL AS' s Travels in South Russia, i. 80. 

 f Vol. xxx. p. 346. 



