182 
Observations on the various Insects 
Carrot and parsnip crops when left for seed are dreadfully 
injured by multitudes of rather small caterpillars, which roll up 
the leaves, spinning webs amongst the flowers and capsules, to 
enable them to feed in security, leaving nothing but the stalks 
and fragments of the fructification to reward the owner. This is 
so great a loss that it is well worth attending to, and by becoming 
acquainted with the habits of these insects, no doubt their ravages 
may be arrested. 
They all belong to the Order Lepidoptera, the Family 
TiNEiD/E, and the Genus Depressaria of English authors, but 
in Germany and France they are generally described under the 
generic term Hcemilis. One species is named 
Depressaria Cicutella, the common flat-body Moth, 
a vulgar name which it has received from its depressed abdomen, 
to which also the Latin generic name alludes, and the scientific 
specific one is no doubt applied from its inhabiting a covvbane 
named Cicuta, one species, C. virosd, being a very abundant plant 
in our ditches: the caterpillars are also found upon the wild 
chervil {Chceroplnjllum sylvestre) and gout- weed (^ffopodium 
poda(/ra7'ia) , weeds equally abundant in our hedges. These are 
all Urnhellifcrai as well as the carrot (Daucus Carota), about 
which the moths are usually seen flying to extract honey from 
the flowers. The common flat-body moths seem to be domestic 
species, for they enter our houses and are often mistaken for 
clothes-moths, from their frequenting rooms which are seldom 
used, and are seen upon the curtains, walls, and windows of our 
sleeping-rooms in the evening. They endeavour to avoid the 
light, running about with much activity, and gliding over the 
surface until they can find a quiet corner to conceal themselves in. 
They also fly well and rapidly ; and the females, which live 
through the winter, lay their eggs upon the flower-heads, or 
umbels as they are called, or in the axilla of the leaves, for in 
June the caterpillars are large enough to be discovered, and 
immediately cut the leaves of the chervil or carrot to bend and 
form them into little tunnels, which are held together by threads ; 
in these they reside, feeding as it were upon the walls of their 
habitation, and when these are consumed they remove to another 
leaf, which is rolled up in the same way. Each end is left open 
to allow the caterpillars, when they are alarmed or disturbed, to 
fall to the ground by a thread proceeding from the mouth. This 
is necessary to enable them to escape from their natural enemies, 
amongst which .are the Solitary- wasps (Odyncri)* which fill 
* Curtis's ' Brit. Ent.,' fol. and pi. 137. 
