168 
REPORT OF CONSULTING ENTOMOLOGIST. 
Immediately on the breaking up of the long frost of December and 
January, inquiries regarding insect pests (then found in good health 
and uninjured by weather influences) recommenced as usual. 
At the beginning of February I had observations (with specimens 
accompanying) of Cockchafers' grubs being turned up at a locality in 
Abei'deenshire at the rate of some hundreds to the acre. On 
January 29, inquiries were sent me regarding what proved to be the 
(sometimes) very destructive caterpillars of the Common Swift Moth, 
Hepialus lupuHnus, being found in bean stubble, about six inches 
below the sui'face, with the frost still in the ground for several 
inches below them. These were from near Hayward's Heath, in 
Sussex. Also at Seaford Grange, near Pershoi'e, about 9 or 10 
o'clock in the evening of January 29, moths of various kinds were 
found to be about in plenty. Amongst them were females both of 
the AVinter and of the ]\Iottled Umber Moths. 
These points are of serviceable interest to note just now, as 
giving proof from field observation (of what is well known scientific- 
ally) that cold — at least, such cold as is ordinarily met with in this 
country — cannot be depended on to destroy insect life so long as the 
insects are in their naturally-formed or chosen shelters. So far as 
effect of mere cold goes, I have found in my own experiments that 
beetle and fly larva', which had been frozen torpid, showed, except in 
a solitary instance, no apparent damage on being thawed, neither 
did butterfly chrysalids after being frozen stiff" ; nor did I find any 
damage occurring to caterpillars, whether of moths or of Ichneumon 
parasites, nor to Thrips, nor to the Apple-bark Acari, nor to the 
Phytopti, which I liad opportunity of examining, exposed to similar 
temperatures as the above, in their natural circumstances. » 
If, however, their natural shelters are broken up and iJie creatures 
are exposed to alternate wet and cold, their numbers may be most 
serviceably diminished. 
The Small or Common Swift Motli caterpillars ai-e not often 
inquired about, but where they do occur they have a power of doing 
very great mischief. They feed at the roots of a good many kinds of 
garden and field crops, including grass ; my own acquaintance with 
them has been in winter and spring, at the roots of winter beans or 
of bean stubble when ploughed up. These caterpillars are somewhat- 
over an inch long, cylindrical, yellowish or whitish, with brown 
horny head, and the next segment liorny above but pale. The other 
segments are usually (but not always) marked on the back with four 
black dots, each producing a bristle, and with a line of dots and 
bristles running along each side. Tlieir colour distinguishes them 
from the Common Surface Moth caterpillars, and they may be known 
