984 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
viii. 229). My specimen proves to be only a pale variety of 
Proteus. It was quite an oversight of mine recording the 
capture, as I had not previously compared it with examples 
in my cabinet; and the plates of Proteus in Newman’s 
‘British Moths’ are quite different to any I have ever seen of 
the latter species. Indeed, I should have believed the plates 
to represent a different insect.—W. Thomas; Surbiton 
Villa, Surbiton, October 6, 1875. 
[I fear that others of Mr. Thomas’s captures have been 
incorrectly named. I need hardly point out the necessity for 
greater care.—Edward Newman. | 
Answers to Correspondents. 
John Bristow and Arthur W. Paull.—Pear-tree Slug.— 
This is a matter which may prove interesting to your readers, 
and concerning which I should be glad to have information. 
A friend of mine, living near Belfast, informed me that his 
pear-trees were being destroyed by an insect which neither he 
nor his gardener had ever seen before. In two large gardens 
almost every pear-tree was attacked, while plums, peaches, &c., 
even though their leaves withered, were untouched. On 
examination I found the leaves covered with what at first 
sight appeared small leeches, about half an inch long, of a 
shining, dark olive-green colour, almost black; the head was 
swollen; and the tail, at its extreme point, generally slightly 
raised from the leaf. The whole insect was covered with a 
dark slime, that gave it the appearance of a leech, neither 
legs nor distinct head or mouth being visible. On rubbing one 
of the insects, however, I found the slime rubbed off, and 
revealed a larva, with distinct characteristics of that of a 
sawfly. The leaves are denuded of their soft cuticle, both 
on upper and under side, and the brown skeleton of fibre 
alone left. When feeding, the larva is at full stretch, appa- 
rently adhering as close to the leaf as a leech or slug, and no 
appearance of head, the shining slime covering all. Can you 
inform me of what species this is; or if it has been observed 
in such destructive numbers elsewhere '—J. B. 
[The creature is the very objectionable pear-tree slug, of 
which an account will be found in the current number. I am 
indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Arthur W. Paull, of Waltham 
a a 
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