MOTHS 197 



streak on each segment ; it feeds, often in hundreds at a time, on fruit and other 

 trees, though in agricultural districts every effort is made to destroy it. The moth 

 is one of those in which the female, which is yellow and black in colour, and short 

 and stout in shape, has no wings. The male has a wing-spread of over li inches, 

 the fore-wings being yellowish brown with a central spot and a broad brown bar 

 edged with black. 



Bordered I Q another of the group, the bordered white moth (Bupalus 



wmte Moth, piniarius), the caterpillar in October lets itself down to the ground 

 to enter the pupa-stage. This caterpillar dwells on firs, especially those with 

 tall thin stems, and has ten legs ; it is green in colour, with a white dorsal stripe, 

 a yellowish white subdorsal line, and a yellow line along the spiracles, so that at 

 a little distance it is scarcely noticeable among the fir-needles. The adult moth is 

 1£ inches in breadth, the males having comb-like antennae, while those of the 

 female are thread-like. The fore-wings of the males are jellowish, with the 

 inner margin brown, the tip brownish black, and the veins brown : those of the 

 females are yellowish brown, darker at the tip, and frequently have a brown 

 transverse band in the middle. 

 Tawny-Barred The larva of the tawny-barred angle moth (Macaria liturata) 



Angle Moth, lives on the Scots fir from July to October, and is green in colour, 

 with a brown head and whitish lines. It is often abundant and does much damage 

 The moth, which is met with from May to July, is just over an inch across, the fore- 

 wings being grey, bordered and barred with tawny. 



_ In the winter moth (Cheimatobia brumata) the female has only 



Winter Moth. . , ., , J 



rudimentary wmgs; while the larva, which is green with three white 



lines along each side, lives from March to May on trees of nearly all kinds, par- 

 ticularly orchard trees. The male moth measures 1 J inches across, and is brownish 

 grey with broad brown bands on the fore-wings, the hind-wings being paler with 

 three faint streaks. The female's wings are only a quarter the length of the body, 

 and brownish grey crossed with two brown stripes. Although the larva begins to 

 feed in Ma}', the moth does not appear until October, and is met with up to 

 Christmas. The eggs are fastened high up in trees, chiefly in the buds. The larvae 

 creep out when the buds open, bore into and destroy them, and later on eat their 

 way down the tree, stripping off the leaves as they go, so as to render the trees 

 absolutely bare. About the middle of June, when they have cleared the tree to its 

 lowest branch, they let themselves down to the earth by threads, and there enter 

 their pupa-stage. The winter moth is one of the most injurious insects known ; 

 none has been more discussed by agricultural societies, and against none are so 

 many remedies tried. Tree-trunks are wrapped with sticky bandages and greased 

 hay bands, or daubed with grease, and painted with tar, London purple, Paris green, 

 kerosene, and patent compounds — in some cases a hundred and twenty thousand 

 trees at a time ; the object in all these cases being to prevent the ascent of this 

 female to the top of the tree to deposit her eggs. 



Another species for whose destruction great efforts are made is the 



Codlin Moth. r , 



codlin moth (Carpocupsa pomonella), which is one of the tortrix group, 

 and common from May to July. In breadth it measures three-quarters of an inch, 

 the fore-wings being ashy grey, with darker transverse lines, and having on the 



