52 DIRECT INJURIES FROM MOTHS. 



left soon becomes seared and brown. Their attacks 

 did not end with the trees of the forest, for they 

 penetrated into the orchards, stript them of their 

 foliage, and afterwards preyed upon the fruit. So 

 universal was this scourge, that it spread general 

 consternation, and at length an edict was issued by 

 the Parliament, ordaining people to collect and destroy 

 them. But even this means had nearly proved 

 abortive, when, fortunately, a tract of cold weather set 

 in, accompanied by heavy rains, which so completely 

 extirpated them, that it was with difficulty that even 

 a single larva could be met with.* 



The Brown-tail Moth has made a conspicuous 

 figure in history, from the great alarm its caterpillar 

 caused to the inhabitants of the vicinity of London in 

 the year 1782. These were so multitudinous, and 

 their devastation was so complete, that rewards were 

 offered for collecting the caterpillars, and the church- 

 warden and overseers of parishes were appointed to 

 see them burnt. The peasantry and others flocked 

 in with bushels of them from all directions, for the 

 sake of the premium. 



In the year 1731, the caterpillar of the Hornby x 

 dispar committed terrible havock among the oaks of 

 France ; and in 1 797, the larva of the Sombyx monacha 

 of Fabricius sadly devastated many of the extensive 

 forests in the vicinity of Bareuth, in Bavaria.f And 

 De Geer informs us that the Xoctua brumata of 



* REAUMUR, ii, 122. 



f WIENER, Verzeich. 8vo. edition, p. 55. 



