186 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



Of this genus there are many species, each taking its own tree. 

 Saperda cylindrica, for example, prefers the pear, plum, and 

 other stone fruit, though it is sometimes found in the nut. It 

 always completes its larval existence in the centre of the stem. 

 Another species prefers the oak. It is fortunate for the owners 

 of woods that the Saperda is greatly persecuted by a parasitic 

 fly belonging to the genus Tachina, and that its numbers are 

 much thinned by the dipterous usurper. 



The Lepidoptera number among their ranks some of the most 

 destructive wood-boring insects that inhabit this country. 



There is, perhaps, no insect which makes so large or so rami- 

 fied a burrow as the common Goat Moth [Cossus ligniperda). 

 This insect is far more plentiful than is generally supposed, but 

 as in its larval and pupal state it is deeply buried in some tree 

 trunk, and in its perfect condition seldom ventures to fly by day, 

 not one in a thousand is ever seen by the eye of man. This 

 moth breeds in several trees, such as the willow, the oak, and the 

 poplar, the first-mentioned tree seeming to be its chief favourite. 

 Kent is one of the counties wherein this moth is found in 

 greatest profusion, and in the fields round my house there is 

 scarcely a wHlow of any size which has escaped the ravages of 

 the Goat Moth caterpillar. 



The larva of the Goat Moth" derives its name from the very 

 powerful and rank odour which it exhales, and which is thought 

 to resemble that of the he-goat. This odour is not only strong 

 but enduring, and for several years after the insect has vacated 

 its burrow the disagreeable scent is plainly perceptible. I have 

 now before me some specimens of the burrow of this creature, 

 and although a very long time has evidently elapsed since the 

 larvae inhabited them, their odour is quite strong, and can be 

 perceived at a distance of several feet. The pocket in which I 

 placed them, after removing them from the tree, has never lost a 

 rank reminiscence of its contents. As is the case with the 

 musk-beetle, the Goat Moth can be often discovered by means of 

 its odour, and any one who is acquainted with the scent will be 

 attracted by the well-known emanation, and point at once to the 

 tree whence it issues. 



The larva is by no means a prepossessing creature, either to 

 the eye or the nostrils, and though some persons believe that it 



