WINTER MOTH ; EVESHAM MOTH. 
9 
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Lizard, near Shifnal, Salop, regarding the enormous amount of cater¬ 
pillar-attack on Oak-leafage, mentioned :—“ They are destroying many 
of the fruit-trees too,—Plums and Apples; they gather a few leaves 
round the fruit, and eat it instead of the leaves. They are also on the 
thorn-hedges ; some of them are quite bare.” 
Amongst various communications from the other side of the 
country to the above-named places, a note was sent, on June 1st, from 
Copal, Dorking, Surrey, by Mr. Goodchild, with moth-caterpillars 
accompanying, mentioning that they were “ specimens of kinds which 
infest our Apple-trees more especially ; but Pears and Quinces in the 
orchard also suffer.” The most hurtful of the kinds sent in this case 
also were of Winter Moth (which appears to have been by far the most 
generally distributed last year), the Mottled Umber, and the Figure of 
8 Moth ; and all sent were taken off Apple. 
Somewhat earlier, that is, on May 5th, Mr. Thos. Buss had 
written to me, from Haymans Hill, Horsmonden, Kent, regarding 
damage to his Apple-orchards from a “looping” caterpillar; he men¬ 
tioned :—“Last year several acres of my Apple-orchards (and some 
Cherries) were severely attacked by ‘ looping’ caterpillars, which cleared 
off nearly all the leaves. I find they are come again this year ; some 
of the small leaves, which have not opened from the bud, have one or 
two in them.” In this case more than one kind of “looper” moth- 
caterpillar was present, but part of the damage, of which specimens 
were sent, corresponded with that of the common Winter Moth- 
caterpillar. This begins its operations by fastening the parts of the 
leaf or blossom-bud which it infests together, with a web so fine that 
it is almost invisible, and as time goes on, in extreme cases, the cater¬ 
pillars fairly clear off all that is eatable, and the brown remains give 
the tree the appearance of having been scorched. 
At Bexley Heath, Kent, the Lackey Moth-caterpillars also did 
harm to the Apple-trees (see Lackey Moth). 
On June 8th, Prof. Thos. J. Elliot wrote me, from the Weald of 
Kent College of Agriculture, Hole Park, Kolvenden, Kent, regarding 
the needs of one of the staff, who occupies a large fruit-farm, men¬ 
tioned that this year “ there is a plague of small green caterpillars on 
the leaves of the fruit-bushes, especially the Cob-nut bushes. J So 
thick are these caterpillars, that five bushels a day can be gathered 
from the leaves. There is great danger of the timber being very 
much affected.” 
In many of the cases above-mentioned the great damage was caused 
by several kinds of caterpillars feeding at the same time on the infested 
trees. As these are very similar in their method of injury whilst in 
caterpillar-state, but differ in many points of life-history (such as 
place or method of deposit of eggs, duration of chrysalis-state, or 
