168 HALF-HOURS IN THE GREEN LANES. 



you examine the trunks of trees in your walk, it if? 

 more than likely you will see them bored and drilled 

 as if a carpenter had been at work, the only 

 difference being that the hole is rather oval than 

 round. Within the tree in which this hole exists 

 the larva lives, often at the expense of the tree 

 itself. Not unfrequently, when the bark of a tree 

 is removed, you may see the genuine surface of the 

 wood literally honeycombed by these caterpillars. 

 At the base of such trees you will see fine sawdust 

 Fig. 119. 



Larra of Goat-moth. 



strewn, as if carpenters of a higher zoological 

 structure had been there. Whilst you are noting 

 these holes, a strong rank smell greets your nostrils, 

 as though you had got a whiff of some passing 

 menagerie. That is a sure sign the caterpillars are 

 still present, for it is this rank smell that has given 

 to the insect the name of the " goat-moth." The 

 goat-moth is one of the largest of our native species. 

 The willow appears to be the favourite tree for the 

 caterpillar to practise upon, and the early summer 

 the time. Those strangely gustative people, the 



