The =Cockchafer= (_Melolontha vulgaris_) is usually pretty abundant, and does most damage by eating the leaves of the sycamore, beech, oak, cherry and many other trees. It will also eat the roots of most young trees, but those of pine in particular. The insect is about 1¼ in. long, and of a chestnut-brown colour on the upper part of the body, while the head and some other parts of the body are of a bronzy green, and thickly covered with yellowish-white hairs. In April and May the eggs are laid in a hole in the ground about 5 in. deep, and the grubs are hatched in July. They are of a dirty-white colour and much wrinkled. In this state, however, they do but little harm; but, after having changed their skins and remained in a torpid state during winter, come to the surface in spring and eat the roots of almost any plant that comes in their way. They again burrow deeper at the approach of winter, coming to the surface again in spring, and, when full grown, are about 1½ in. long, and almost ½ in. in diameter. The perfect insects do not live more than about twelve days, and are easily known by their heavy, awkward flight towards the evening. The =Laburnum Moth= (_Cemiostoma laburnella_) is fairly abundant—in England, at least; and, in some instances, every leaf of a tree has been eaten almost wholesale by the caterpillars of this pretty moth. The insect is about one-eighth of an inch in length, and three-tenths of an inch across the fully expanded wing. It is of a silvery-white colour. The greenish-grey caterpillars are about ¼ in. long. By burning the attacked leaves great numbers of the caterpillars may be destroyed, while, by shaking the trees in May and August, the moths will fly out, and may be caught in a butterfly net. [Illustration: WOOD LEOPARD MOTH (_Zeuzera æsculi_) (Very destructive to trees, particularly around London)] =Wood Leopard Moth= (_Zeuzera æsculi_).—The caterpillar of this beautiful moth is very destructive to the beech, ash, birch, elm, walnut, privet, etc., which it bores into, eating and living on the wood. Usually young trees or the branches of old specimens are attacked, and the tunnelling is confined in the former either to the pithy centre or the soft wood near the bark. The moths appear about mid-July, and the female, by piercing the bark with her powerful ovipositors, deposits her eggs, one in each hole. Three years are required for the caterpillar to arrive at maturity when it is nearly 2 in. long. Both in form and colour the leopard moth is particularly elegant, the head and thorax being covered with a thick white pile, the body with a black down, fringed with white at each joint. The wings are white with yellowish-brown veins, a row of rounded bluish spots running between every two. By stuffing a piece of tow in gas tar, or placing cyanide of potassium in the hole and closing the aperture, the caterpillar may be overpowered and destroyed.