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* 
The Rev . Mr . Skelton’ j Letter to the Earl of 
Orrery. 
.7 - 
My Lord, 
Monaghan , March 29, 174?* 
P URSUANT to my promife, I fend you an ac- 
count of the Cornel-Caterpillar* the web it pro- 
duces, the flic into which it is changed,: and a fmall 
fample of its work. 
In the beginning of May 173 7, the warmeft 
feafon that any body now alive remembers to have 
felt, the Cornel-trees, of which we have a good 
number about this place, appeared almoft cover'd 
with fmall Caterpillars of the fize and fhape in Tab. I. 
Fig • 1. and in general of a duskifh green, refem- 
bling in colour the bark of the tree, altho’ a few, 
confiderably larger than . the reft, were yellow. Thefe 
worms were employed partly in feeding on the 
leaves of the Cornel, which was their only Nou- 
rifhment, and partly in crawling (with a very fwife 
motion for a worm) over tfiejbark of the tree. As 
they crawled, they left each a fine thread, fcarcely 
vifible to the naked eye, flicking to the bark. Thefe 
.threads, being almoft infinitely multiplied by the in- 
conceivable number of worms employed in the 
work, formed the web, in which the threads are 
not interwoven, but cohere by fome roughnefs or 
glutinous quality. 
By the end of May there was not a leaf to be 
feen on any of the Cornels, excepting a few, re- 
ferved for a very curious purpofe, which I fhall have 
occafion 
