206 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



Of this genus there are many species, each taking its own tree. 

 Saperda cylindrica, for example, prefers the pear, plum, and other 

 stone fruit, though it is sometimes found in the nut. It always 

 completes its larval existence in the centre of the stem. Another 

 species prefers the oak. It is fortunate for the owners of woods 

 that the Saperda is greatly persecuted by a parasitic fly belonging 

 to the genus Tachina, and that its numbers are much thinned by 

 the dipterous usurper. 



The Lepidoptera number among their ranks some of the most 

 destructive wood-boring insects that inhabit this country. 



There is, perhaps, no insect which makes so large or so ramified 

 a burrow as the common Goat Moth ( Cossus ligniperdd). This 

 insect is far more plentiful than is generally supposed, but as in 

 its larval and pupal state it is deeply buried in some tree-trunk, 

 and in its perfect condition seldom ventures to fly by day, not one 

 in a thousand is ever seen by the eye of man. This moth breeds 

 in several trees, such as the willow, the oak, and the poplar, the 

 first-mentioned tree seeming to be its chief favorite. Kent is one 

 of the counties wherein this moth is found in greatest profusion, 

 and in the fields round my house there is scarcely a willow of 

 any size which has escaped the ravages of the Goat Moth cater- 

 pillar. 



The larva of the Goat Moth derives its name from the very 

 powerful and rank odor which it exhales, and which is thought 

 to resemble that of the he-goat. This odor is not only strong but 

 enduring, and for several years after the insect has vacated its 

 burrow the disagreeable scent is plainly perceptible. I have now 

 before me some specimens of the burrow of this creature, and al- 

 though a very long time has evidently elapsed since the larva? in- 

 habited them, their odor is quite strong, and can be perceived at a 

 distance of several feet. The pocket in which I placed them, after 

 removing them from the tree, has never lost a rank reminiscence 

 of its contents. As is the case with the musk-beetle, the Goat 

 Moth can be often discovered by means of its odor, and any one 

 who is acquainted with the scent will be attracted by the well- 

 known emanation, and point at once to the tree whence it issues. 



The larva is by no means a prepossessing creature, either to the 

 eye or the nostrils, and though some persons believe that it was 

 the famous Cossus, or tree-grub of the Eomans, which was thought 

 so great a delicacy by the ancients,! can not believe that any pal- 



