ANTLER MOTH, OR GRASS MOTH. 
13 
worth notice relatively to the opinion which has been occasionally 
brought forward that the damage done to pastures by the caterpillars 
may in some places be compensated by the increased production of 
grass in future seasons. 
One of our leading agricultural authorities remarked relatively to 
this point:—“ The worst of mountain pastures is that they never are 
fed down bare by the sheep and cattle which graze upon them, and 
the accumulation of rough grass is a fertile source of disease amongst 
the stock. If once fed down, by whatever means, the future growth of 
the grass will not only be sweeter and healthier, but the land will 
graze a far greater head of stock.” 
The above is very true as to the benefit of having the mountain 
pastures better grazed down, but, in regard to the caterpillars doing 
the work, I should say they are far too indiscriminating to prove a 
profitable kind of grazer. 
No detailed reports have been forwarded as to the parts of the 
grass which were devoured by the caterpillars in either of the above 
attacks, beyond the general fact of the pasture being devoured ; but, 
with regard to this important point, it is stated, in Curtis’s ‘ Farm 
Insects,’ pp. 506, 507, that “ they live on the roots, and eat away all 
shoots.” In ‘ Kollar on Insects injurious to Gardeners, Farmers,’ 
&c., p. 137 (English translation), it is stated:—“The food of the 
caterpillar consists of all the soft sorts of grasses. It lives at the 
roots, and eats all the germs. Although it is in existence in autumn, 
it lies benumbed in the earth in winter, and begins to eat again in the 
spring ; yet the effect of its devastations appear chiefly in the beginning 
of June, when it has changed its skin for the last time.” 
Kaltenbacli (another good German authority) places the Antler 
Moth amongst the insects infesting Wheat and Rye, and, under the 
head of Barley, notes that the caterpillars live at the roots of various 
kinds of cereals, to which they are destructive ; and Linnaeus stated 
the Antler Moth caterpillars to be “the most destructive of Swedish 
caterpillars, laying waste our meadows, and annihilating our crops 
of hay.” 
It would be very serviceable to know whether the presence of better 
grass was found in 1884 to follow on the scenes of caterpillar-attack 
of 1883 in Glamorganshire, and also whether in either of the attacks 
mentioned above there were warnings of what was coming in an 
unusual number of moths being observed in the previous summer. 
At present there seems to be no reason to fear that the attacks of the 
caterpillars are increasing in frequency, and so long as they come 
without any previous presence of the moths being observed nothing 
can be done in the way of prevention. Still, when these vast legions 
do appear, it would seem desirabJe to check their devastations and 
