WOOD-BOKEES. 



17 



FAMILY III. THE ZEUZERTDM. 



32. The Goat Sloth (Cossus liffniperda). 



30. The Reed Mcth (Macrogastcr Arundinis). 



31. The Leopard Moth (Zeuzera 





THE THIRD FAMILY of British Moths is called 

 Zeuzeridce, from Zeuzera, the most familiar 

 genus. We have already said how unlike each 

 other are the three families which constitute 

 the tribe Cossites ; scarcely less unlike are the 

 three Moths which, in this country, represent 

 the family Zeuzerklce ; they agree, however, 

 iu some very essential characters ; all the 

 caterpillars feed inside trunks and stems, and 

 they are all unsightly and most destructive 

 maggots ; they have hard and horny heads, 

 and a horny plate on the segment next the 

 head. The chrysalises have a series of little 

 hooks on each segment. In the perfect or 

 Moth state, all the females have a long, 

 polished, hard, and piercing ovipositor, with 

 which they deposit their eggs deep in the 

 crevices of the bark of trees. 



30. The Reed Moth (Male) (Macrogaster Amndtnis). 



30. THE REED MOTH. Fore wings pale 

 brown, the rays being slightly paler, and 

 somewhat raised, and the spaces between 

 them sprinkled with extremely minute. black 

 dots ; the hind wings pale brown ; thorax and 

 body of the same pale brown colour as the 

 wings ; the body very long in the female, very 

 much exceeding the wings in length ; the 

 antennae of the male are slender, and almost 

 like a hair at the tip, but fringed at the base 

 like a double comb ; those of the female are 

 slightly fringed throughout their length. The 

 ' caterpillar is dingy white, inclining to yellow, 

 fand feeds in the interior of the common reed 

 (Ariuulo Phraymites). This insect has only 

 been found in two localities Holme Fen in 



Huntingdonshire, and Whittlesea Mere, iu 

 Cambridgeshire but in these places it was 

 formerly abundant. The female, as we have 

 said, has a remai'kably long body ; she flies 

 low, slowly, and steadily, with this extraordi- 

 nary body hanging down. . She settles on a 

 stem of a reed, running up and down, and 

 incessantly vibrating her wings, while she 



The Reed Moth (Female). 



seems to be feeling about with the curious 

 ovipositor we have mentioned as characteristic 

 of the tribe, as though seeking for a suitable 

 place in which to deposit her egg. The egg 

 is placed on end, as observed by Mr. Harding, 

 and is glued to the stem of the reed by a 

 strongly adhesive fluid secreted in the insect, 

 which dries the moment the egg is laid : in 

 this position the head of the little caterpillar 

 is placed nearest the stem of the reed, into 

 which it eats its Way directly it leaves its egg- 

 shell : it enters almost close to the ground 

 and eats upwards ; the Moth lays but one 

 egg in one reed stem : the chrysalis is very 

 long, shaped much like that of a gnat, nnd 

 is very rough to the touch, owing to the cir- 

 cles of little hooks which surround each seg- 

 ment : by means of these hooks it wriggles 

 up and down the interior of the reed stem. 

 The Moth comes out in June, and Mr. Double- 

 day says that it leaves the chrysalis at ten 

 o'clock in the evening. This Moth is a 

 favourite food of the black-headed Bunting 

 (Emberiza schoeniclus) ; but when it escapes 

 this bird, it only lives a fewdays. (The scien- 

 tific name is Macrogaster Arundinis.) 



EDWARD NEWMAN'S BRITISH MOTHS : \ 



f LONDON : E. HAEBWICEB, 



