Entomological Society. 



6155 



Mr. Douglas remarked that in some of the species most closely allied, as, for in- 

 stance, Cemiostoma Spartifoliella and Laburnella, it was not merely that they fed on 

 different plants, but the habit of the larvee was totally different, and it would 

 be a preposterous doctrine to maintain that the difference of the habit was the cause 

 of the modification of the species, and not rather that the habit differed because 

 the species were different. 



Mr. Dunning said he was no advocate fur the notion of species gradually 

 changing from one form to another. 



Mr. Stainton observed that Mr. Westwood's remarks went fully the length of 

 maintaining the development theory, and in further illustration of the difference of 

 habits, showing closely allied species to be distinct, he exhibited larvae of M. Mil- 

 liere's new Coleophora Lugduniella, feeding on Vicia Cracca, and larvse of C. Vibi- 

 cella, on Genista tinctoria ; the former larva having an ample silken cloak thrown 

 over its black case, and the latter being entirely without the cloak ; the former larva 

 eating the leaves through into holes, and the ktter blotching the leaves in the usual 

 Coleophoric fashion. 



Mr. Vardon called the attention of the Meeting to the lamentable state of the 

 fruit trees in Worcestershire: a few weeks ago they promised one of the finest crjps 

 ever seen, which had since been totally destroyed by multitudes of caterpillars, some 

 of which he laid before the Meeting. His own orchards were planted with currant 

 and gooseberry bushes under the fruit trees, and the caterpillars after defoliating the 

 latter, had descended to the former: he would feel much indebted to the members 

 present for any suggestions calculated to remedy or mitigate this serious evil: the 

 crop on at least 1000 acres being totally destroyed. 



Mr. Westwood observed, with reference to the statement of Mr. Vardon, as to the 

 wholesale destruction of the apple crop (as well as of that of the currant and goose- 

 berry trees planted under the apples), that the caterpillars which had now proved so 

 destructive for several years were those of the winter moth Oheimatobia brumata, and 

 that as they were now full-grown, the mischief which they had produced had arrived 

 at its height for the present year. The destruction of such of the caterpillars which 

 still remained in the trees by beating the branches over large sheets, and which had 

 already been practised to a large extent, was still highly desirable ; but Mr. West- 

 wood considered that the peculiarities of the perfect insect offered much greater 

 facilities for preserving the crop of next year. The habit of the caterpillar to 

 descend to the ground and undergo its transformations in the earth, together with the 

 fact that the female being wingless, would only be enabled to lay her eggs upon the 

 tips of the present year's shoots (so as to allow the newly hatched larva) to find an 

 immediate supply of food) by creeping up the trunks of the trees, suggested what 

 appeared to be a satisfactory means of combatting this pest. The German horticultu- 

 turists had indeed invented a kind of boot or box for the protection of the base of the 

 trunk of the tree, composed of four upright boards fixed close round the tree, each 

 having a small oblique ridge at the top, the inner surface which was kept (during the 

 months of October and November when the perfect insects appear) moistened with gas 

 tar or other sticking matter, which caught the females as they endeavoured to ascend 

 the trees. It would also be very advisable at the same period of the year, either to 

 remove and burn the earth beneath the trees to the depth of several inches, in order 

 to carry away and destroy the chrysalids, or to beat the surface hard so as to prevent 



