NEIGHBOURHOOD OF MANCHESTER. 209 
tion of the month this indiscriminate feeder attacked 
the young leaves of the oak, which were then ex- 
panding, and the effects of its depredations soon be- 
came very conspicuous in the gnawed and withered 
foliage. 
To this pest quickly succeeded another, the larva 
of a small moth, Yortrix viridana, which completed 
the devastation commenced by the Green Weevil ; 
and the monarch of the grove, nearly destitute of 
verdure and loathsome with numerous caterpillars, 
stood almost leafless, wearing a wintry aspect even in 
the middle of June. These caterpillars, in common 
with many others provided with an apparatus for 
spinning, on being disturbed, hastily quit their re- 
treats among the convoluted leaves, and descend to- 
wards the earth by a fine line, formed of a viscous 
secretion, which hardens on exposure to the atmo- 
sphere. So extremely abundant were they at the 
period alluded to, that during a brisk wind thou- 
sands might be seen thus suspended—some carried 
out by the breeze far beyond the widest-spreading 
branches of the tree to which their threads were 
attached, others, with violent contortions, slowly 
ascending their silken filaments, and all, as they 
were wafted to and fro, fantastically dancing in the 
agitated air without any visible support, their lines 
being too attenuated to be discerned by the unas- 
sisted eye, except when they occasionally reflected, 
with a silvery lustre, the vivid light of the un- 
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