Reports to various Correspondents. 79 
The damage is done to the trees (Fig. 11) by the caterpillars 
eating tunnels and galleries into the very heart of the trunks. 
Unlike many forest- tree pests, they do not pick out unhealthy trees 
only, perfectly sound ones often being invaded. As a rule, when 
once a tree is “ struck,” unless remedial measures are employed, it 
will be killed sooner or later, according to the number of these 
pests attacking it. Some observations as to the rapidity of their work 
are here recorded. 
As a rule, the Goat Moth prefers to lay her eggs upon isolated 
trees ; but this is by no means the only position, for it is not unfre- 
quent that large trees in woods die under their attack. Avenues are 
also infested by this pest, and trees both in high and low positions, 
sheltered and exposed. 
The forest and park trees which suffer from the Goat Moth larroe 
are elm, ash, poplar, beech, lime, willow, oak, alder, and birch, and I 
have twice noticed them in maple. Not unfrequently reports are 
sent from orchardists as to their damaging apple and pear trees, and I 
have seen them once attacking the walnut. The damage done in 
orchards is slight, however. It is also recorded as attacking apple 
and pear in France, and also in Germany, Taschenberg recording 
that two hundred and sixty-six larvae were taken from one pear tree. 
The number found in a tree varies from one or more up to the 
number recorded above by Taschenberg. As a rule, not more than 
twenty or thirty are found in a tree of the largest size in this 
country. The wood eventually becomes completely honeycombed, 
and it is not until the tree is really dead that they stop their work, 
the caterpillars, if not mature, leaving the dead tree and crawl to a 
neighbouring one, or even feed on roots in the ground. 
Their presence can be told, even in small numbers, by the holes 
in the trunk, often as big round as a man’s finger ; later, boughs begin 
to die and break off during gales, even when they are still sufficiently 
healthy to have foliage upon them. In a few years the damage 
becomes more noticeable, both in regard to decaying and dead boughs, 
and especially in the trunk, which becomes perforated with innu- 
merable holes up to about eight feet from the ground, and if still 
growing becomes much deformed, as shown in the Figs. 11 and 12. 
They cause the death of a tree much more rapidly than is 
generally supposed. The ash figured on page 80 was first attacked in 
1891 ; the tree was left alone, and for eight years struggled on, not 
only not growing, but gradually dying, until during the present year 
it put out a few stunted leaves as a dying effort, and now (1903), as 
seen in the photograph taken in August, it is quite dead. A healthy 
