142 
THE SUBSTITUTE. 
New Holland). The larvae of 
Mameslra are a little less vermi- 
form than those of the rest of the 
family : their spots do not form 
well-developed shining warts, and 
their colours are generally not so 
dull ; the greater part also live 
generally less concealed; several 
species are known as destructive, 
especially Brassicce, which does 
not confine its ravages to our cab- 
bages, but shares with Triphcena 
pronuba a part of our kitchen- 
garden plants. Its injuries are 
very perceptible to our gardeners, 
because continued during a por- 
tion of the winter, and at a time 
when vegetable life becomes pre- 
cious. In order to get rid of the 
larvae, remedies have been recom- 
mended worse than the evil, and 
besides hardly practicable, such 
as powdering the plants with lime, 
or washing them with liquid pre- 
pared with soot or tobacco, &c. 
Independently of the expense and 
considerable amount of manual 
labour which the use of these re- 
medies woidd require, besides the 
injury to the plants themselves 
and affecting their flavour, they 
have not even the merit of attain- 
ing their object, for certain parts 
of the plant always remain un- 
touched, and the caterpillars are 
always skilful enough to select 
such ; besides even the parts thus 
operated upon do not always repel 
the attacks of the larvae : and even 
if we did succeed in driving them 
away, they would spread over the 
neighbouring plants, for, as I have 
just said, they are polyphugous, 
and one cannot, in fact, doctor an 
entire garden. 
On the other hand, these cater- 
pillars do not live in society, even 
when they are young, and do not 
testify their presence by webs or 
agglomerations of leaves ; so that 
to get rid of them one is obliged 
to kill those we meet with, one by 
one and day by day, that is to say, 
only the half of those which exist, 
for a great number easily succeed 
in escaping the most continuous 
research. 
Hence it results that the destruc- 
tion of the Mamestr(B is almost im- 
possible, and, except in those cases 
where their ravages are almost 
alarming, and justify the employ- 
ment of a special manipulation, we 
are obliged to have recourse for 
their extermination to enemies 
more patient than ourselves, espe- 
cially to Nature, which suddenly 
arrests their multij)lication by at- 
mospheric influences or by other 
means which we cannot explain. 
In the perfect state the Ma- 
mpf;tr<E, in their manners, do not 
differ from the general run of 
Nocluce. Their exterior organiza- 
tion presents nothing particular; 
their colours are generally rather 
insignificant, although their mark- 
ings are neatly expressed. — Vol. I. 
pp. 188, 189. 
Apainea. 
This is a genus which, though 
adopted by all authors, has yet been 
considerably varied as to the spe- 
cies it should contain. In my ‘ In- 
dex ’ 1 restricted it considerably, 
and I still maintain it so, only ad- 
ding basUinea and connexa, which 
experience has proved to me to be 
true Apamece. 
The larvic of these insects have 
many points of relation with those 
o( Xplophasia OY Luperina. They 
are short, stiff, with the skin thick 
and shining, with the horny plates 
well developed, and generally of 
