54 CATAiiOauE of motSs. 



Group. BOMBYCINA. 

 Family. ZETTZEHIDtE, Bdv. 

 COSSUS, Pab. 

 1. Cossus ligniperda, Eab. Goat Moth. 



Cossus ligniperda. Staint. Man., vol. i., p. Il4. 



„ ,, IS'ewm. Brit. Moths, p. 18 



,, ,, Barr. Lep. Brit. Is., vol. ii., p. 146. 



Try partus Cossus. Meyr. Hdbk. Brit. Lep., p. 560. 



Larva. Buck., vol. ii., pi. xxxi.,fig. 3; O.Wils., pl.ix., fig.9. 



The earliest record of this insect in our district appears to be 

 that in '^ Ornsby's Durham," which gives Elvet Bank, Durham, 

 and Brancepeth Park, as localities where it occurs. The Dur- 

 ham collectors do not appear to have met with it recently, though 

 Mr. Fawcett of Satley, who published a list of Durham Lepi- 

 doptera, gave these localities as though its occurrence there was 

 within his own knowledge, but he admitted to me that he merely 

 copied it. Still, there is no reason to believe that the insect has 

 disappeared. 



The next record is that of the late "William Backhouse, who 

 found the larvae in Pear trees at Darlington. In 1861 a living 

 specimen of the perfect insect was brought to me at Hartlepool, 

 but it could not have bred there as we have no trees within a 

 reasonable distance. In 1874 my brother found a larva on the 

 flags in Skinner Street, Stockton-on-Tees, which he afterwards 

 found had wandered from an old garden which bordered one side 

 of the street. This garden contained several old elms (now cut 

 down), which were bored through and through with the larvae 

 of Ligniperda. A few years later a larva was brought from 

 Elwick, near Hartlepool, and given to the late Thomas Belk, 

 then Town Clerk here. Mr. Belk put it on his desk, placed a 

 tumbler over it, and left it. It was forgotten for a few days. 

 "When he looked for it there was a circular hole in the wood of 

 the desk, but the larva was gone. Mr. Barrett (Lep. Brit. Is., 

 vol. ii., p. 148) gives an account of a somewhat similar occur- 

 rence where a larva gnawed through the bottom of a cigar case 



