COSSUS LIGXIPERDA. 261 



ance ; my informant, a member of the family, hap- 

 pened to strike one of them smartly with his stick, 

 when, to his surprise, the bark gave way, and re- 

 vealed a colony of caterpillars. In consequence 

 of this discovery, and for the purpose of at once 

 extirpating the cause of the evil, six or eight full- 

 grown trees were felled, and about two hundred of 

 these new and unknowm caterpillars destroyed. My 

 friend was soon Eifter this time informed what they 

 really were, and received so many applications for 

 specimens, that he was induced to institute a strict 

 search for them through the plantations, but without 

 success. In the ensuing summer he renewed his 

 scrutiny, with precisely the same result, nor did 

 he succeed until July, 1832, when a large ash tree 

 in the lawn evinced unequivocal symptoms of being 

 the object of attack. The caterpillars were at that 

 time rapidly proceeding with their mining operations. 

 Three of them were brought to Belfast by my brother, 

 and five of them about two months afterwards by 

 myself. By comparing them with drawings and de- 

 scriptions I was then fully convinced that they were 

 the lar^'ae of the Cosstis Ugniperda; but I had not 

 the gratification of seeing the perfect moth, for none 

 of them attained maturity, and only one assumed 

 the form of a chrysaUs. 



The caterpillars of a smaller moth were very abun- 



