MOTTLED UMBER MOTH. 
57 
present, and also the brown and yellow “Looper” caterpillars of the 
Mottled Umber Moth (see accompanying figure). 
Hybernia defoliaria. 
The Mottled Umber Moth; male, female, and caterpillar. 
The “Blue-head” caterpillar of the Figure of 8 Moth was again 
sent from various places, and the wingless females of the “March 
Moth” (then in the act of laying their broad bands of eggs embedded 
in down, on the sprays of the fruit trees) were forwarded at the end of 
March. The little “Red Bud Caterpillars,” which turn to very small 
moths, easily known by a broad whitish band placed across the centre 
of the fore wings from one side to the other, were found in one locality 
on Apple, and various other Moth-caterpillars shared the work, but 
were not so specially observed. 
The “Apple-blossom Weevils” were reported as being remarkably 
injurious near Swanley, in Kent, and the White “Woolly Aphis” 
attack (commonly known as “American blight”) was enquired about 
from Dundee, under the impression that it was showing spread of the 
recently-noticed White Woolly Currant Scale (see pp. 48-49) to Apple- 
bark. 
Some remarkably healthy and well-grown specimens of the large 
wood-boring caterpillars of the Wood Leopard Moth were also sent me 
in the bored Pear-branches. 
Of the above attacks, those of the Winter Moth caterpillars are 
much the most important, both on account of their destructiveness and 
the variety of trees on which they feed, and it is satisfactory to find 
that the measures which have been used to keep them in check have 
proved, when carried out carefully and in good time, to be of real service. 
As is well known to most orchard-growers, the point of the history 
of this Moth which places it to a great extent in our power is, that the 
wings of the female are so stunted that they are useless for purposes of 
flight, consequently the Moth is obliged to creep up the trunks of the 
trees, instead of flying through the air, to gain the branches or twigs 
where she may wish to lay her eggs. 
On this turns the whole system of checking attack by bands of 
grease. If rightly done, and at the right time of year, it is an excellent 
