THE PEAR. 



467 



they certainly contain the insect; and if not cut 

 off for this purpose, would only serve as a habi- 

 tation, wherein it would become perfect, and so 

 continue the propagation of its species without 

 a chance of fruit being produced. If, as is sus- 

 pected by some, the female shelters herself in 

 the ground and not on the tree, then the appli- 

 cation of a collar, covered with some adhesive 

 matter, as already referred to, would prevent her 

 ascent by the stem of the tree. 



The red-footed beetle, fig. 1 97, (Luperus rufi- 

 pes, Fabr.,) a small but destructive beetle, in- 

 fests the foliage of fruit trees very generally. 



Last year, 1852, it ap- 

 Fig. 197. peared in great num- 



bers during May on 

 the leaves of pear 

 trees,perforatingthem 

 into innumerable 

 holes, and continu- 

 ing its depredations 

 throughout the greater 

 part of the summer. 

 Its name is derived 

 from the colour of its 

 feet, which are bright- 

 ish red, while the 

 whole body is of a 

 shining black colour. 

 The tips of the anten- 

 nse are also black, the 

 basal part being red- 

 dish. It deposits its eggs in the ground round 

 the base of the tree, and when the beetles are 

 hatched, they ascend the tree by climbing up 

 the stem. Their ascent may be prevented by the 

 means we have already suggested, and the eggs 

 removed or destroyed as also already recom- 

 mended in similar cases. 



Fig. 198. 



RED-FOOTED BEETLE. 



GOAT MOTH AND CATER PILLAR. 



The goat moth, fig. 198, (Bombyx Ugnlperda, 

 Colsus Ugniperda Linnaeus, Fabricius, and others,) 

 is not only one of the largest native species 

 belonging to the Lepidopterous order, but also 

 one of the most destructive to some of our 

 timber and fruit trees, and is not unfrcquently 

 discovered in the interior of old pear-trees, 

 where it excavates for itself a habitation in the 

 solid timber. It is a nocturnal-flying moth, and 

 from its great size is easily captured in a gauze 

 net. As many as one thousand eggs have been 

 discovered in the body of a single female, 

 which leads to the conclusion that its natural 

 enemies must be both powerful and many; 

 for so destructive an insect, if allowed to mul- 

 tiply unrestrained, would soon spread desolation 

 in our fruit gardens and forests. The perfect 

 insect measures from 2| to nearly 3 inches 

 from point to point of its fore wings, which 

 are of an ashy-brown colour, shaded with dark 

 brown, especially across the middle, marked with 

 many irregular transverse streaks in the form 

 of irregular network. The hind wings are 

 brown, the reticulations being marked with 

 somewhat obscure lines. The thorax is ochre- 

 coloured in front, palish in the middle, with a 

 black bar behind. The female is larger than 

 the male. It sits quietly during the day, and is 

 with difficulty discovered on account of its gene- 

 ral colour resembling the bark of the tree. The 

 antennae have a light-grey shaft and black rays, 

 and are more strongly feathered in the male than 

 in the female. The caterpillar, when fully grown, 

 is nearly 4 inches long, and as thick as a man's 

 finger, of a dull yellowish hue, with dark chest- 

 nut-coloured scales on the back of each ring of 

 the body. The body is smooth and shining, 

 having only a few short scattered hairs upon it. 

 It is dark red on the back, and the spiracles at 

 the sides are of the same 

 colour. The head is black. 

 The caterpillar emits a strong 

 goat-like smell, from which its 

 English name is derived. Its 

 organs of manducation are so 

 powerful as to enable it to 

 masticate the hardest wood, 

 and to bore deeply into the 

 timber, in which it forms a 

 burrow for shelter and the 

 propagation of its species. 

 When they attack young trees, 

 they so completely excavate 

 the interior as to cause them 

 to be broken over by even 

 very slight winds. They live 

 entirely on the wood, and, 

 unlike most other moths, do 

 not attack the foliage. They 

 live chiefly in the same tree 

 they have chosen for their 

 abode; and their presence in 

 it is only discovered by the 

 decaying appearance in the 

 tree itself, or by their excre- 

 ment being observed on the 

 trunk, and known by the name 

 of worm meal — the digested 

 portion of the wood they have 



