Entomological Society. 



8259 



Hutton, of Mussooree, N.W. India, with the following note, dated November 1st, 

 18(31 ;— *<I captured here, this season, for the first time in twenty years, a specimen of 

 Epicopeia Polydora. Since then I found, feeding on an oak tree (Quereus incana), at 

 an elevation of 5200 feet, several caterpillars of a very curious appearance, which I am 

 inclined to think belong to this species, simply because I know not to what else to 

 refer them, and have never seen them before. When in motion they advance very 

 slowly and awkwardly, with a wriggling gait, shaking themselves from side to side as 

 if tottering on their feet; the head is only seen when the animal moves, and is jet- 

 black, the whole body being densely clothed and concealed in long flossy stuff, an 

 inch in length or more, resembling glossy floss silk, of a dazzling whiteness: this falls 

 off to the touch in white powder. When the worm is ready to turn it descends from 

 the tree, and spins a few silken threads around and over it, to hold dead leaves toge- 

 ther, on the ground, in holes and corners at the roots of the trees, under stones, or 

 such-like places, denuding itself of and enveloping itself in the white floss, for the pur- 

 pose apparently of keeping itself warm during the winter months. The caterpillars 

 were found small in the beginning of September, and in the first week of October they 

 began to turn. The white floss stands up erect on the body, and has often a slight 

 curl at the summit ; when denuded of this the animal was of a dull livid olive-brownish 

 hue." 



Prof. Westwood remarked that the exhibition of E. Polydora was peculiarly inte- 

 resting, from the fact that for a long time only a single specimen of the imago was 

 known ; and it had been a question between the late Edward Doubleday and himself 

 whether it was a butterfly or a moth. The discovery of the larva proved that the 

 insect had been properly referred to the Bombycidae. 



Mr. Newman communicated the following remarks on the ravages committed by 

 the larva of Zeuzera iEsculi, and stated that the damage done to the young hop-poles 

 in a single plantation in Sussex was estimated at a thousand pounds at the least : — 



Destructive propensities of the Larva of Zeuzera Msculi. 

 " I beg to exhibit some young shoots of the ash, the vitality of which has been 

 entirely destroyed by the larva of Zeuzera /Esculi. In some parts of Sussex, Surrey, 

 Kent and Herefordshire immense numbers of these young ash trees are grown for hop 

 poles; but I have never before met with an instance in which they were seriously 

 injured by the ravages of an insect. The information I have now the pleasure to 

 hand the Society has been kindly transmitted to me by Mr. Jenner, of Lewes, so well 

 known for his researches into the Diatomacese. In the spring of the present year the 

 woodreeve and bailiff of Mr. J. C. Courthorpe, of Whyleigh, near Ticehurst, in Sussex, 

 were greatly surprised to see innumerable young stems of previously healthy ash trees 

 dying and dead, the bare leafless tops being very conspicuous. This led to an 

 examination with a view to ascertaining the cause. On cutting off a number of these 

 tops, the interior of the shoot was found to be occupied by what was described as a 

 large white maggot with a few black spots on it : this had eaten the pith and a great 

 portion of the wood, leaving only a thin layer of wood within the bark, and invariably 

 killing the whole of the shoot above the spot where the egg* was laid, and where the 

 caterpillar had originally entered. A few of these shoots are now before you, and the 

 plantation consisted entirely of such, fine young plants full of vigour and three to five 

 feet in height. Before Mr. Jenner's attention was invited to the subject, Mr. Cour- 

 thorpe had ascertained that the larva? were those of Zeuzera iEsculi. When 



