SLUG-MOTHS AND FLANNEL-MOTH. 



appendages, which the larva in some way contrives to 

 leave on the outside. These tufts give to the bullet- 

 shaped cocoon a nondescript appearance and the stinging 

 hairs afford a very perfect protection against birds and 

 other insectivorous animals. "Unlike other species of 

 Limacodida?, the Hag-moth larvae do not seek to hide 

 away their cocoons, but attach them to leaves and twigs 

 fully exposed to view, with, however, such artful manage- 

 ment as to surroundings and harmonizing colors that they 

 are, of all the group, most difficult to discover. A device 

 to which this insect frequently resorts exhibits the extreme 

 of instinctive sagacity. If the caterpillar can not find 

 at hand a suitable place in which to weave its cocoon it 

 frequently makes for itself more satisfactory surroundings 

 by killing the leaves upon which, after they have become 

 dry or brown in color, it places its cocoon" (Hubbard). 

 The larva is a rather general feeder and has been found on 

 most orchard trees as well as on wild trees and shrubs in 

 late summer. The adults fly in midsummer ; the female is 

 brownish, marked with yellow; the male is much like that 

 of T. ephemerceformis (Plate LIX) but smaller. 



MEGALOPYGID.E 



It is the cocoon of the Crinkled Flannel- 

 Megalopyge moth which tg thig f arn il y j nto t h e Ques- 



C**lSD3.tfl. 



tion-box and crispata is the only northeastern 

 species which is at all common it is only locally so in New 

 Jersey, for example, although it ranges from Massachu- 

 setts southward and is found at least as far west as Minne- 

 sota. The larva feeds on raspberry, blackberry, apple, and 

 other leaves. Like other larvae of its family, it is extra well 

 provided with legs, having the usual three pairs on its 

 thorax and, according to Eliot and Soule, seven pairs on its 

 abdomen. It is an oval, very hairy affair; the hairs are 

 brown and form a ridge along the larva's back sloping 

 off on each side. The tough oval cocoon is fastened to the 

 side of a twig very securely indeed and here the creature 

 hibernates; but what arouses one's interest is that when the 

 moth emerges, about July, it does so by lifting a flat circu- 

 lar lid at one end of the cocoon. The adult is a soft, 



201 



