• WINTER MOTH | EVESHAM MOTH. 
7 
the peculiar cold spring has not retarded it as it has done nearly all 
other insects (lepidopterous, at least), so that it is now nearly all gone 
to pupa, whilst many species, usually its contemporaries, are still 
feeding.” 
On June 11th, Capt. Corbett (to whom I am also indebted for 
observations further on), writing from Toddington, Winchcombe, near 
Cheltenham, reported :—“ The Winter Moth has, indeed, been bad 
here. We caught the moth by thousands, with the band of tar and 
grease put on in October, and by renewing it lately we have caught 
numbers of the caterpillars ; but for all this the destruction is terrible.” 
Besides the Winter Moth-caterpillar mentioned above, Capt. Corbett 
forwarded specimens showing the presence of caterpillars of “ Mottled 
Umber,” “ Lackey,” “Figure of 8,” “ Small Ermine ” moths, and also 
of one or two other kinds not specially destructive. 
Mr. Robert Mercer, writing from Rodmersham House, near 
Sittingbourne, Kent, on Feb. 10th, mentioned that Apple-trees on his 
ground had suffered much from caterpillar of the Winter Moth in the 
previous spring, and added :—“ I have followed your advice in using 
Davidson’s composition, and all through the month of November the 
belt of mixture at the bottom of the trees were almost covered with the 
moths. I have also used a slight covering of gas-lime on the land.” 
The following note refers more particularly to Cherry attack. 
On June 8th the Rev. J. Ayscough Smith, writing from the 
Vicarage, Tenbury, Worcestershire, forwarded me some specimens of 
Cherries,—fruit and leaves,—as samples of insect-injury, of which he 
had written a short time previously, and further mentioned that in the 
orchard he had visited, and some adjacent ones, more than half of 
what ten days previously promised to be an abundant crop was 
destroyed. In this case some of the specimens proved to be cater¬ 
pillars of the Winter Moth, and some of a Green-leaf Weevil,—a 
Phyllobius ,—apparently P. maculicornis, Germar, the same species 
noticed at p. 4 as doing much mischief in Kent. There were also 
two kinds of small caterpillars agreeing with the description given by 
Dr. E. L. Taschenberg of those of the Tortrix Moths, T. ribeana and 
T. cerasana , H. The first of these is noted as feeding on many kinds 
of leafage, both of orchard-trees and bush-fruits, and that it goes into 
chrysalis in similar places. The second as more especially feeding on 
buds and young leafage of Plum and Cherry. 
The following note, sent me, on June 9th, by Mr. A. K. Hudson, of 
Wick House, Pershore, Worcestershire, shows the serious amount of 
attack in the orchards of the Vale of Evesham. In this case the 
accompanying specimens were of the Winter Moth, and likewise of 
Lackey Moth caterpillars.* Mr. Hudson wrote as follows:—“The 
* For figure and account of Lackey Moth, see p. 10. 
