DIRECT INJURIES FROM MOTHS. 49 



scourge, and at the same time proved most fatal and 

 destructive to many of the other West India islands. 



In a tour through the West Indies by M'Kinnen,* 

 he states, that, in the years 1788 and 1794, two-thirds 

 of the cotton crop were destroyed by a caterpillar 

 called the Chenille, which is supposed to be the larva 

 of a moth. 



Let us turn to our gardens, and see what ravages 

 are often committed by the larvae of these beautiful 

 animals. The bowers of Pomona are frequently laid 

 waste by them. The Currant Moth (Phalcena gros- 

 tulariata) frequently destroys whole gardens of this 

 fruit. Lettuces are subject to the attacks of various 

 species of moths, such as the beautiful one called the 

 Tiger, (Bombyx cajas of Fabricius,) and the cater- 

 pillar of an anonymous one, which is described by 

 Reaumur as commencing at the root, eats itself a 

 domicile in the stem, and there lodges ; which so 

 completely destroys the plant, that it never cabbages.f 

 The Pot-herb Moth (Noctua olevacea of Fabricius) 

 is no less consuming to this and other esculent 

 vegetables. Besides the Papilla brassica, cabbages 

 are infested w ith a moth which is equally destructive, 

 called by Fabricius the Noctua brassica, which does 

 not confine its depredations to the leaves, but pene- 

 trates to the very core of the plant, thereby causing 

 its total demolition. 



By a wise provision in nature, many of these 



* Page 171. 



f REAUMUR, ii. 471. DE GEER, ii. 440. 



