130 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
brown-tail to fruit-trees in other days? My own impression 
has been always that these are exaggerated, both in the case 
of England and the Continent. Now here, at Gravesend, we 
are encompassed by fruit-producing districts,—at Higham, 
Singlewell, Southfleet, and Green Street Green, are large 
orchards of pear, apple, plum, and cherry. The increase of 
L. chrysorrhcea, to be injurious to these trees, would be 
serious. At present, I find no signs of them on fruit-trees ; 
these nests described to you are all on three lines of hedge, 
running near each other, about a mile from Gravesend. The 
larve are evidently most inclined to feed on hawthorn, 
though some have colonized the blackthorn, and even the 
bramble. It would probably be an easy matter to collect and 
burn two hundred nests, which, at the moderate average of 
thirty to a nest, might represent six thousand larve; yet, for 
my own part, looking at the thing with a naturalist’s eye, I 
should not like to suggest it, unless it really ought to be done. 
I can hardly see that the insect is one that calls for such 
interference.—J. R. S. Clifford; 120, Windmill Street 
Gravesend, May 11, 1874. 
[I have often thought the accounts of the brown-tail moth, 
as given in that most choice of all Natural Histories, Kirby 
and Spence, rather surprising: “ The oaks, elms, and white- 
thorn hedges, looked as if some burning wind had passed 
over them and dried up the leaves.” Now 1 have seen 
something of this appearance produced on the oak by Tortrix 
viridana, and on the whitethorn hedges by Yponomeuta 
padella, but never by Liparis chrysorrhea. Then again it is 
said, as regards leaves, these larve “ate only the upper 
surface,” and “they devoured the fruit,” both of which state- 
ments are contrary to the usual habits of the larvz in question. 
Then it is stated that “churchwardens and overseers burnt 
the caterpillars by bushels.” It would puzzle these gentle- 
men, even when assisted by the most energetic of beadies, to 
collect a single bushel of caterpillars. All things considered, 
I quite agree with Mr. Clifford that these statements may 
fairly be challenged.—Edward Newman. | 
Diantheecia albimacula Bred: Description of the Larva. 
—lI send you a short description of the larva of Diantheecia 
albimacula, which I captured off Silene nutans last summer. 
The above plant formerly grew in abundance in this locality, 
