208 Butterflies in the Garden 



that drive their nauseous burrows deep into the 

 white heart-leaves of the cabbage, ruining it much 

 more effectually than the caterpillars of the two 

 butterflies, which rarely penetrate so deep. But 

 the caterpillar pests of the vegetable garden form 

 a large and painful subject on which it is only 

 necessary to touch just so far as to vindicate the 

 bright company of September butterflies from all 

 complicity. Most of the " grubs " which are a 

 serious nuisance in the flower gardens are the larvae 

 either of beetles or of small, obscure moths. Of 

 moths large enough to attract the interest of the 

 unscientific mind, when found as denizens of the 

 garden, few in their caterpillar stage do any con- 

 siderable damage to flowers or ornamental shrubs. 

 The caterpillars of the goat and wood leopard 

 moths will sometimes destroy a garden tree by long 

 and resolute timber-boring ;, but they generally 

 prefer a tree already unsound, and their attack 

 is spread over such a long series of years that 

 this form of damage amounts to little more than a 

 kind of slow reinforcement of natural decay. Much 

 more common and annoying are the ravages of 

 the buff-tip moth, which lays its eggs on the boughs 

 of elms, limes, young oaks of several species, and 

 several other garden trees. The caterpillars are 

 gregarious through the whole of this stage in their 

 existence, and not merely, as is more usual, when 

 very small. They are often to be found at this 

 time of year descending the tree trunks, or crawling 

 over the ground, in search of soft, dry earth in which 

 to change to the chrysalis. The moth emerges 



