Country diary 1921: on the scent of the rare goat moth | Insects
Country diaryInsects This article is more than 2 years oldCountry diary 1921: on the scent of the rare goat moth
This article is more than 2 years old22 July 1921 Destructive larvae which eat their way through timber are said to exude a strong goat-like smell
The large caterpillars from Ainsdale are those of the goat moth, a destructive but not very common insect. They are perhaps half grown, for the larvae spend some three or four years in eating their way through sound timber, various trees being attacked. They are said to smell strongly, hence the name, but I cannot say that I have noticed any objectionable odour. The assertion that this insect confines its ravages to weakly trees is not correct; living wood is eaten, though very soon disease reaches the heart of the tree through the tunnels excavated by the powerful jaws of the grub. The Romans, it is asserted, used to eat this fat caterpillar as a delicacy; I have not tried it, nor heard of anyone who has experimented.
The sender of the yellow sweet pea has told me his secret; he placed a cut flower in coloured water. I had a suspicion that this had been done, but was puzzled because the keel had taken so little dye. In any case the experiment is interesting.
EWW – If the dense columns of “dust” seen at Bamford rose from burnt-out portions of the moor, may they not have been clouds of ashes raised by the whirlwind action of meeting air-currents? Possibly they were smoke-clouds from still smouldering peat, wind-drifted in the way described. If, however, they were really much nearer to the observer than was imagined, and were not from a burnt place, they may have been insect swarms. Columns of gnats and other flies; or even of ants, when engaged in nuptial flight or dance, look very like smoke or dust from a distance.
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