RAVAGES OF CATERPILLARS. 203 



conspicuous of insect depredations, in consequence 

 of their being committed upon the leaves of trees, 

 bushes, and phuits, whicli are often stripped as bare 

 as in winter. Even the smaller sorts of caterpillars 

 become, from their nuiltiplicity, sometimes as destruc- 

 tive as those which are of considerable magnitude. 

 During the summer of lB'i7 we were told that an ex- 

 traordinary b'ii^lil had suddenly destroyed the leaves 

 of all the trees in Oak of Honour Wood, Kent. On 

 going thither, we found the report had been little ex- 

 aggerated; for though it was ' in the lealy month of 

 June,' there was scarcely a leaf to be seen on the 

 oak-trees, which constitute the greater portion of the 

 wood. But we were rather surprised when we dis- 

 covered, on examination, that this extensive destruc- 

 tion had been etfected by one of the small solitary 

 leaf-rollers (To)7iJj; r!?u/«Hfl, Hawokth);* for one 

 of this sort seldom consumes more than tour or five 

 leaves, if so much, during its existence. The num- 

 ber, therefore, of these caterpillars must have been 

 almost beyond conception; and that of the moths, the 

 previous }ear, mustabo, have been very great: for the 

 mother moth only lays from fifty to a hundred eggs, 

 which are glued to an oak branch, and remain during 

 the winter. It is remarkable that in this wood during 

 the two following summers these caterpillars did not 

 abound. t 



Instances, like this, however, from solitary species, 

 are, we believe, less common tliaii those of the rava- 

 ges of gregaricus caterpillars. In liJ-G, colonies of 

 the bufl-tip [Ptji^a-m biuij)li(tla, Ocusk.nheim.') were 

 in some parts of the countrv very abundant. We re- 

 marked them particularly at Harrow-on-the Hill, and 

 at Compton-lJasset in Wiltshire. From their feeding 

 in company, they strip a tree, branch after branch, 



* Sec figure.1 of this caterpillar ;ii;J its moth in ' Insect 

 -Nrcliitccture,' pp. 162-3. 

 f J. K. 



