STRANGE DWELLINGS. 
114 
enabling the insect to escape at once into the outer world. In 
some instances, however, this is not the case, and in the present 
specimen the empty chrysalis shell may be seen, its shattered i 
sides showing the manner in which the inclosed moth made its jl 
exit. The hole through which the moth emerged from the 
cocoon is of a wonderfully small size, considering the dimensions 
of the perfect insect, and its sides are very ragged and irregular. 
Like the other cocoons, it is strongly imbued with the charac- 
teristic odour, which has attached itself so strongly to my lingers 
that careful ablution will be needed before I shall venture to j 
produce my hands in society. 
Some of the most elegant and curious British Lepidoptera 
are also among the most destructive. 
The various species belonging to the remarkable family S 
AEgeriadae, properly called Clear-wing Moths, are terrible ! 
enemies to the gardener, as well as to the landowner, their 
larvae feeding upon the pith, and generally preferring the 
young Avood to that of a more advanced growth. In some 
cases they live in the roots, and are quite as destructive as 
their relations who prefer the branches. All the Clear-wings I; 
are distinguished by the fact that the greater part of their 
wings is simply membraneous and transparent, without the I 
beautiful feathery scales that are w r orn by the Lepidoptera as 
an order. Some of them resemble hornets, others are often 
mistaken for wasps, while several species are wonderfully like 
gnats, and as they fly about in the sunshine may readily be 
mistaken for these insects. 
Of one of these insects, EEgeria asiliformis , known to col- 
lectors as the Breeze-fly Clear-wing, Mr. J. Rennie writes ; 
as follows : ‘We observed above a dozen of them, during this 1 
summer, in the trunk of a poplar, one side of which had been 
stripped of its bark. It was this portion of the trunk which 
all the caterpillars selected for their final retreat, not one having 
been observed where the tree was covered with bark. The j 
ingenuity of the little architect consisted in scraping the cell I 
almost to the very surface of the wood, leaving only an exterior 
