TENTHEEDINID^E. 217 



habit of falling to the ground when the bush is shaken, where 

 they can be crushed by the foot. Dr. Fitch has reared Abia 

 cerasi from one or two cocoons found on the wild cheriy, the 

 fly appearing in New York during March. 



Hylotoma is a much smaller genus ; the basal joint of the 

 antenna is oval, while the second is small and round, and 

 the terminal joint is very long. The larva is twenty-footed, and 

 when eating curves the end of the body into the form of an S. 

 The pupa is protected by a gauzy, doubly enveloping cocoon. 

 H. McLeayi Leach is wholly black, sometimes with a tinge of 

 blue. It is found throughout the Northern States. 



The genus Pristipliora, closely allied to Nematus, is known 

 by its nine-jointed antennae, and the single costal cell ; the first 

 submarginal (subcostal) cell having two recurrent veinlets. 

 P. identidem Norton has been discovered by Mr. W. C. Fish to 

 be destructive to the cranberry on Cape Cod. He has reared 

 the insect, and sent me the following notes on its habits, while 

 the adult fly has been identified by Mr. Norton, to whom I 

 submitted specimens. The larvae were detected in the first 

 week of June, eating the leaves ; "they were light or pale yel- 

 lowish green when first hatched," and grew darker with age. 

 The head of the young was dark, but in the full-grown worm 

 lighter. When full-grown they were about .30 of an inch in 

 length, and had two lighter whitish green stripes running along 

 the back from head to tail. They had spun their cocoons by the 

 20th of June in the rubbish at the bottom of the rearing bot- 

 tles. On the 29th of June the} r came out in the perfect state. 

 We would add to this description that the body, in two alco- 

 holic specimens of the larvae, was long, cylindrical, and smooth, 

 Avith seven pairs of abdominal feet. The head is full, rounded 

 and blackish, but after the last moult pale honey-yellow. The 

 male is shining black, and Mr. Norton informs me that it is 

 his P. idiota. P. grossularice Walsh is a widely diffused species 

 in the Northern and Western States, and injures the currant 

 and gooseberry. The female fly is shining black, while the 

 head is dull yellow, and the legs are honey-yellow, with the tips 

 of the six tarsi, and sometimes the extreme tips of the hinder 

 tibiae and of the tarsal joints pale duskjr for a quarter of their 

 length. The wings are partially hyaline, with black veins, a 



