DIRECT INJURIES FROM MOTHS. 51 



them might produce, in the course of one season, 

 eighty thousand individuals. How soon, then, might 

 they overspread the world, and devour the entire 

 fruits of the earth, did not the benign Creator of all 

 things see fit to check their progress by a wise provi- 

 sion ! The Ichneumon Fly, by depositing its eggs 

 within the body of the caterpillar, become larvae, and 

 prey upon its vitals ; and by this means the number, 

 which would otherwise be overwhelming, is kept 

 within due bounds. 



Caterpillars are great enemies to all kinds of fruit ; 

 and the foliage suffers much from the depredations 

 of the larva of the Black and White Caterpillar of the 

 Phal&na grossulariata. Mr Forsyth, in his work on 

 fruit trees, says that a little moth is very injurious 

 to the pear tree.* There is a moth which Linnaeus 

 calls the pest of Pomona, and the destroyer of the 

 blossoms of the apple, pear, and cherry. Certainly 

 this most useful fruit is subject to great havock from 

 the caterpillar of the Figure-of- Eight Moth, (Bombyx 

 ctEruloccphala of Fabricius,) an insect common to 

 Europe. 



In the years 1731 and 1732, a general alarm was 

 caused in France by the appearance of vast numbers 

 of the larva of a moth nearly allied to the Brown- 

 tailed Moth, (Bombyx ptueorheea of Fabricius.) Oaks, 

 elms, and white-thorn hedges, appeared as if blighted 

 by lightning, for their leaves were totally withered, 

 and dyed of a reddish brown colour ; the caterpillar 

 feeds on one surface of them only, and that which is 



Page 271. 



