Insects at Home: Being a Popular Account of British Insects, Their Structure, Habits, and Transformations
‘ Somehow or other, the pips of an apple are connected with its growth, as the heart of an animal with its life : injure the heart, an animal dies ; injure the pips, an apple falls. Whether the fall of his house gives the tenant warning to quit, I cannot say, but quit he does, and that almost immediately ; he leaves the core, crawls along his breathing and clearing-out gallery, the mouth of which, before nearly closed, he now gnaws into a smooth, round hole, which will permit him free passage without hurting his fat, soft, round body ; then out he comes, and for the first time in his life finds himself in the open air. He now wanders about on the ground till he finds the stem of a tree ; up this he climbs, and hides himself in some nice little crack in the bark.
‘ I should remark, that the fall of the apple, the exit of the grub, and his wandering to this place of security, usually take place in the night-time. In this situation he remains without stirring for a day or two, as if to rest himself after the uncommon fatigue of a two yards’ march ; he then gnaws away the bark a little, in order to get further in out of the way of
observation ; and having made a smooth chamber big enough for his wants, he spins a beautiful little milk-white silken case, in wliich, after a few weeks, he becomes a chrysalis, and in this 0 state remains throughout the winter and until the following June, unless some unlucky, black-headed tit, running up the trunk, peeping into every cranny, and whistling out his merry see-saw, happen to spy him, in which case he is plucked without ceremony from his retreat, and his last moments are spent in the bird’s crop ; but, supposing no such ill-fortune betide him, by the middle of June he is again on the wing, and hovering round the young apples on a midsummer evening as before.
‘ By burning weeds in your garden at this time of year, you will effectually drive away this little Moth. If you have trees the crops of which you value, make a smoking (mind ! not a blazing) fire under each ; it will put you to some inconvenience garden be near your house, but the app. es 'svill repay if your you for that.’ _ j these destructive habits of this insect —perhaps in tlif
Despite consequence of them — I have always cherished a kindly reminiscence of this Moth. When I was a child there was a re- ; fine codlin apple-tree in the garden, the fruit of markably which ripened early and was particularly juicy. As children, ■
were not allowed to gatlier the fruit at our discretion, buth we to take that which fell without any unfair P were permitted used, such as beating or shaking the branches. | means being Thanks to the Codlin Moth, a considerable number of apples ; having ripened much before their time, always did fall annually, as is the manner of fruit which will never come to perfection. larvae which never see the light until they are full- Like most of this insect is nearly colourless, with the . fed, the caterpillar of the head, which is brown-black, hard, and shining. exception LIX. Fig. 2, is seen a magnified representation ,
On Woodcut the popular name of the Single Blotch ^ of a Moth known by ( Evhippiphora scutulana). _ | its name from the rather peculiar colouring of |
It derives pair of which are brown, variously . the wings, the upper inner margin a single square mottled, and each having on the insect in all parts of Ln„ t blotch of white. It is a plentiful land.
An allied species, Ephippiphora fcenella, is sb'own at Fig. 1 . It is a very pretty little creature, the upper wings being dark brown, each having a pretty white spot, as seen in the illustration, The under wings are nearly as dark as the upper pair.
While we are engaged on this subject of Tortrices that are destructive to fruit, we must mention the Wh3Berian Tortrix (^Semasia Wceberana), which affects the various stone-fruit just as the Caddis Moth attacks the apples.
I scarcely know a more lovely Moth than this little being, its beauties, however, being so minute that they can scarcely be even suspected until the magnifying glass is brought to bear upon them. When viewed with a moderately powerful lens and a good light, the upper wings start into sudden and unexpected beauty. Their rich, satiny warm brown surface is seen to be covered with innumerable tiny and delicate pencillings, scarcely wider than a hair, but each traced with perfect decision, and glittering as if it were formed of highly burnished gold.
Although belonging to the Tortrices, it is not a leaf-roller, nor even a fruit-eater, but restricts itself to the inner bark, on which it seems to feed exclusively. Although thus hidden from human sight, it can easily be detected, because, like the Codlin Moth, it ejects from the mouth of the burrow the digested remains of its food, which may be seen in the form of fine yellow powder. Brushing oil into the holes has been strongly recommended as a mode of killing these mischievous caterpillars. I should think that to force a drop of oil sharply into the burrow by means of a fine syringe would be much more effectual. Oil is instantaneously fatal to insects, because it chokes up the spiracles and prevents them from breathing. But, it must first reach the spiracles, and I rather doubt whether the mere brushing oil over the mouths of the burrows would have that effect, whereas, forcing it into the tunnels with a smart push of the syringe-piston could scarcely fail of that effect.
The last of the Tortrices which we can mention in this work is the ZoEGiAN Tortrix {Tortrix zoegana).
The colouring of this insect is very bold. The ground colour of the upper wings is yellow, and the upper L L part of ihei]-
bases is tinged wiili rusty red. An irregular spot of the same colour is on the middle of the wing, just below the longitudinal fold, and the end of the wing is rust-red, with the exception of a rather large oval spot of the same yellow as the ground colour of the wing. The caterpillar of this Moth feeds on the root of the scabious. The perfect insect, though it seems to be widely distributed, is not very common anywhere.
CHAPTER VII.
Tineje And Pteropeori.
We now come to a vast group of Moths, some of which are moderately large, while some are so very minute that they scarcely seem to he ranked among the Lepidoptera.
The name Tinese is taken from a Latin word signifying a Clothes Moth, and has nothing to do with our word ‘ tiny,’ however appropriate that may he in many cases. The number of these Moths is really unknown, for there is scarcely a year in which some hew species of the Tineae is not discovered and placed on the lisk Indeed, so numerous are they that they have collectively been ranked under a separate name, viz. Micro-lepidoptera, and their study has become quite a distinct branch of entomology. Their average dimensions may be seen by reference to Fig. 7 on Plate XVII., in which the beautiful little Moth called the G-olden Pigmy is represented of its natural size.
We will now proceed to examine a few examples of this group of Moths, and begin with .the insect which is figured on Woodcut LX. Fig. 1, Its scientific title is Depressaria nervosella. No popular name has yet been given to it, so, in to make out allusion to the peculiar colour of its upper wings, I will call i plush. The base of the upper glass, wings it is is impossible dark brown,
Without a magnifying and so is a it the Brown Plush. I ! correctly the colours of this little Moth. The upper wings are I brown, with a slight reddish gloss, and on close examination are ' seen to be covered with a great number of tiny longitudinal streaks of a yellowish dun. Altogether, the general effect of the 5 upper surface of the wing is exactly like that of a piece of brown
small spot near the inner margin, and two dusk-dun spots on the disc. The fringe of the wings is greyish-dun. L L 2 The lower
wings and the abdomen are grey, as is the under surface of the wings. The larva of this insect is bluish-black, with an orange stripe on each side, and is really a handsome little creatuie. It feeds on the Hemlock Water Dropwort {CEnanthe crocata). A magnified figure of this caterpillar is given at Fig. a of tlie same Woodcut, and Fig. h shows the caterpillar of its natural
LX
- Tischeria complanella. d. Tischeiia, larva.
it has size, feeding on the flowers of the dropwort which drawn together with silken threads.
the very beautiful and very mis-
I CANNOT pass unnoticed the popular name of the Lutle Eiohsb chievous insect called by respect to the first of these padella). With iHyvonomeuta that some writers on entomology omit names, I must mention
<!-- pandi-media-anchor:figure-p610-o91-a2fa34be5a7f4db9 -->the IT and spell the word Yponomeuta. This practice, although it is largely indulged in by various writers, is utterly wrong, as it omits the aspirate in the Grreek, the English representative of which is the letter H.
Following exactly the spelling as well as the arrangement of certain authors, I have more than once accepted this omis.sion of the aspirate, hut I can do so no longer, and hereby offer my protest against any such barbarism. The scientific names of insects are quite crabbed enough as it is, and there is no need to add to the difficulty of remembering them by false spelling.
It would be thought extremely absurd to write of burning ydrogen gas, of killing an yena, of using yperbola, of singing an ymn, of planting an yacinth, of inserting an yphen between two words, of unmasking an ypocrite or supporting an ypothesis ; and yet, such words are not one whit more ridiculous than Yponomeuta for Hyponomeuta. I rather think they have been so spelt by persons more conversant with entomology than philology, and who have learnt enough Grreek to know the alphabet, but not enough to know the aspirate.
In the next place the reader will remark that the specific names of the insects belonging to the Tinese are made to end in ‘ ella.’ The specific name of the insect just described, used to be given as nervosa, but has been altered to nervosella for the sake of uniformity.
It is impossible to mistake the little Ermine, whose long, narrow, satiny white upper wings, sprinkled with black dots, render it exceedingly conspicuous. The destruction wrought by this little insect is almost incredible, whole trees being stripped of their foliage, and, instead of bearing leaves, covered with the white webs and strong threads of the caterpillars. Even in the midst of London, in the densest, smokiest, dingiest part of Bermondsey, I have seen this Moth in full force. It was simply master of the situation. The little squaie yard which did duty for a garden was overrun with the caterpillars, which stretched their tough silken cables across the yard, across the windows, across the doorways, across the path, and, in fact, seemed to have calculated how they could most annoy the legitimate proprietors of the place.
Not content with taking possession of the tiny garden, they invaded the houses around, and every window that was opened
was at once stormed "by the caterpillars, which entered the over the furniture, trailed their silken lines rooms, crawled