168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



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ing about in September. They descend into the ground and make 

 a rough earthern cocoon before pupating. The chrysalis has the 

 tongue case detached. 



Sinet^iiiUius has notched wings, and the secondaries are ocellated. 

 The larvae have triangular heads. S. geminatus feeds on the apple. 

 Deilephila feeds on the Willow herb. 



^geriadae. These are small species whose larvae are borers. 

 The moths have delicate transparent wings and slender bodies, 

 elegant and gaily colored, ^geria cucurbitae feeds upon the 

 squash. ^. exitiosa bores in peach trees. These two species 

 have the sexes very distinct. The species bear a close resem- 

 blance to some hymenoptera. Trochilium tipulrforme is a slender 

 blue species. It bores in the stems of the current, and by 

 splitting the stems open in the fall and spring, we shall find the 

 larvae. Towards the last of May they turn to pupae. In the 

 middle of July they appear, often% abundantly, flying with great 

 rapidity about the leaves, like certain hymenopters. They are 

 easily caught with the net. The species are rarely met with. 



Zygaenidae. The members ©f this family which contains but a 

 few New England species, fly in the middle of warm sunny days. 

 They are generally blue, with pectinated or nearly simple anten- 

 nae, slender bodies, and rather narrow wings, and they are 

 covered with fine powdery scales. Procris americana is a slender 

 bodied species, of a deep blue color, and safiron-yellow collar, and 

 spreading anal tuft, which feeds on the vine or common woodbine 

 (Ampelopsis.) Its- larva is short and thick, yellow, with tufts 

 of short black hairs across the rings. Those caterpillars of 

 genera which approach more to the Lithosians have the body more 

 elongated, and thickly covered with whorls of thick set hairs. 

 Glenucha latreillana has a yellow larva of this description, which 

 is found early in summer feeding on grass. In June it makes a 

 thin cocoon of hairs, and in the last of July appears in fields, 

 flying in the hot sun. It is our largest species, of a dark blue 

 color, and with well pectinated antennae. Glaucopis Pholus is a 

 smaller species, with serrated antennae, and the base of the wings 

 are yellow. It feeds as a larva on lichens, and flies about stone 

 walls. 



Bombyccs. Spinners. This handsome family comprises species 

 of the largest and most regal moths. Their thick heavy bodies 

 and small sunken heads, and often obsolete mouth parts, pectina- 

 ted antennae, broad wings, and sluggish habits, notwithstanding 



