164 PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



Moles are particularly keen in hunting after the grubs, whilst 

 such as are turned up to the surface by the ploughshare are 

 eagerly devoured by crows and starlings. 



The Horse-chestnut Cockchafer, Melolontha hippocastani, on the 

 whole closely resembles the May-beetle in appearance, habits, and 

 life-history, but is of less frequent occurrence, and can easily be 

 distinguished from this by its red thorax. 



The Fuller or Garden Beetle, Polyphylla fullo, the largest of 

 the cockchafer genera, also occurs rather frequently here and 

 there throughout sandy tracts, being easily recognisable by its 

 brown outer wings, marbled with white, 



II. MOTHS (Lepidoptera). 

 A. SPINNERS (Bombycidx). 



79. The, Pine Moth, Bombyx (Gastropacha) pini. 



This moth has a span of 2*4 to 3*2 inches when the wings 

 are fully extended, but that of the female is considerably greater 

 than that of the male. The body is thick, the head small and 

 nearly hidden under the thorax. The eyes are large and 

 prominent. The antennye are shortly plumose in the female, but 

 long and double-feathered in the male. The upper pair of wings 

 is indistinctly toothed along the lower edge. There is a thick 

 covering of hairy growth at the base of the wings, on the legs, and 

 on the abdomen. The front wings and the body are greyish-brown 

 in colour, and the former have a reddish-brown horizontal band or 

 belt across them bisecting the wings, which have a dark fringe along 

 the lower edge ; about the middle of the upper half of each of 

 these wings, that next to the body, there is a white half-iiKH in- 

 shaped spot standing out prominently from its dark surroundings. 

 The back pair of wings and the abdomen are of a monotonous 

 brown colour, whilst the whole of the under side is of a li.^lit 

 greyish-brown throughout. In colour the male butterfly is 

 usually much brighter than the female ; but with regard to the 

 colouring, sports of all kinds, melanic and the opposite, are 

 comparatively frequent. When the moths are sitting at rest, 

 the outer wings lie over the under ones like shingles, or slates 

 on a roof. 



