February 21,1896, 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
165 
Many are cleared off trees and plants by the proceises of syringing 
and spraying, also by pruning and scraping, but if they are only 
carried to the ground a part of them may hatch afterwards. It is 
probable some eggs can pass the ordeal of our solutions without the 
germs being killed, and neither cold nor rain affects them, so that 
those insects which pass the winter in the egg state have a notable 
advantage. Fortunately for us, one check on them is the 
activity of tiny ichneumon flies, which puncture insects’ eggs, 
depositing their own progeny, by which the contents are devoured. 
to prevent its farther increase. Very fortunately, the gipsy 
moth caterpillar—once not uncommon in Britain—has become 
scarce, but the patches of eggs coated with furry down are 
easily discoverable on the bark ; and on the Continent, where 
the insect still much infests orchards, it would seem the removal 
of these is not attended to. 
The eggs of our well-known foe, the winter moth, are often laid 
in clusters, which, by their green colour, may be detected on the 
trunks and branches of fruit trees, but they are also placed on 
Fig. 30.— MR. GEORGE TABER. 
Our egg-killing proceeds usually in a more wholesale manner, 
but it is necessary to be also on the outlook for small patches 
of them which may come under our notice, or which we may 
search after because they may not be removed by washes. To 
take an instance, the curious rings or necklaces in which the 
lackey moth arranges its eggs resist the application of water, 
being covered with a sort of varnish ; so they must be picked 
off the twigs and branches. As the caterpillars feed in companies 
on the Apple, occasionally on other fruit trees, and the 
species has been rather abundant the last few years, it is desirable 
the twigs and buds, where they escape the eye, though spraying, 
even with water alone, removes them. Another species allied to 
this is the mottled amber (Hybernia defoliaria). The moth 
deposits eggs early in the winter on a variety of trees, and 
occasionally selects the Cherry, the caterpillars sometimes doing 
unsuspected mischief, from their feeding out of view. The 
accidental finding of this moth’s eggs in lots of 200 or more on 
twigs high up in a tree suggests that here, as in the case of the 
winter moth, there may be assistance given by the male, enabling 
the wingless female to reach a height to which she would hardly 
