91 
some weeds or little regarded by him. Of those of the Sphinges, 
five attack shrubs valued by man, and five weeds, or less than one- 
sixth of the British species in each case. Of the caterpillars of the 
Bombyces, 17 feed on plants of economic importance to man, or 
about one-sixth. Of those of the Noctuse, 19 feed on valuable, and 
an equal number on plants valueless to man. Of the Geometrag, 28, 
or one tenth, feed on trees and other plants useful to man, and only 
10 or 12, or one-twentyeighth on those he does not value. Of the 
Pyralidina only 11, or less than one-sixteenth are injurious, and nine, or 
more than one-eighteenth of the entire list, are beneficial economically. 
Of the Tortricina, 39 are injurious to valuable plants, or more than one- 
seventh of the entire British species, and 12 attack worthless weeds, 
or rather less than one-twentysixth. Of the Tineina 54 attack plants 
or goods valued by man, or more than one-twelfth, and 18, those not 
valued by him, or less than one-thirty ninth the entire British list. Of 
the common Pterophorina, about four attack plants not valued by man, 
or about one-ninth of the British species. 
Before taking leave of insects I would call your attention 
again to their value as food for birds, fish, and reptiles. 
They thus indirectly contribute to the food of man. Some 
insects, however, in other countries afford direct food to the 
inhabitants, and one species — the cheese-mite — to the epicures 
of Britain. Moths and butterflies, like bees and other classes of 
insects, as they flit from flower to flower, carry about with then that 
fecundating dust, without which many a blossom, a bright new birth, 
a fragrant atom, would die and leave no seed. The world cannot bear 
unchecked vegetation. Man, the chief gardener, claims the choicest 
fruit; monkeys and birds come next ; but ere the debt of Nature is 
paid, the smallest insect, a day labourer in ' the Paradise of plants,' 
must have its hire." 
The paper was illustrated by the exhibition of specimens of many of the 
butterflies and moths whose food and habits had been described. 
The President, in inviting discussion, remarked that the author had 
shown himself a true naturalist, in thus accumulating such a vast number 
of facts. 
Mr. S. Barton, President of the Entomological Section, remarked 
that in the case of the Noctuee, at all events, it was better and more easy 
to destroy the larvae than the perfect moth, as Mr. Napier had recommended. 
They might be caught by saccharine matter, with which poison had been 
mixed. 
Mr. W. W. Stoddart then read the following paper, entitled, " The 
Caterpillar Fungus, or Winter-worm-summer-plant," stating that he was in- 
debted to the kindness of a friend for the specimen which he exhibited. 
Every naturalist in his researches must have often observed the most extra- 
ordinary anomalies in the natural world, sometimes in abnormal forms, some- 
