344 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



APPLK. LEAVES. 



worms, r obtained last winter. They appeared to be identical 

 with a very comm©n European species, named Orthosia instabilisj 

 but as authors speak of that insect as feeding only upon oak 

 leaves, I was in doubt whether I would be justified in pronouncing 

 this which feeds upon the apple to be the same. In April, how- 

 ever, on going by night into a forest chiefly of oak trees, this same 

 moth was discovered quite common there. It was clinging around 

 the wounds made in the sugar maples, drinking the sap which 

 flowed therefrom, and instead of flying away when the light of the 

 lantern approached, it merely dropped itself among the dead 

 leaves for concealment, frequently falling into the vessels of sap 

 and drowning therein. It was evident that these moths had come 

 from worms which had fed on the foliage of the surrounding oaks. 

 All doubts of the insect in question being identical with that of 

 Europe were thus resolved. The larva is described in books as 

 being green, with a white line upon the back and a pale yellow 

 one upon each side. It is when it is young and small that it 

 answers to this description. When larger it commonly presents 

 five white lines and the surface becomes freckled with white dots. 

 I once was not a little vexed with myself on finding my memo- 

 randa of one of these worms which I was feeding, to be very 

 incorrect; but subsequent observations showed that it was the 

 worm that had changed. The species may well be called unstable, 

 as not only the larva but the moth also is extremely variable; 

 insomuch that authors have heretofore named and described a half 

 dozen species from what are now regarded as mere varieties of this 

 insect. It is commonly of an ash-gray color, varied more or less 

 with rusty. Near the middle of the fore wings is a faint round 

 spot and behind it a kidney-shaped one, of a blackish-gray color 

 margined by a whitish line, the space between these spots rusty 

 and often extended into a band crossing the wing. Towards their 

 hind edge is a rusty transverse streak on the middle, and in a line 

 with it a spot of the same color upon the outer and another upon 

 the inner margin. Width of the spread wings, 1.50. 



42. Palmer WORM, Ch<Btochilus Pometellus,lIa.Tris. (Lepidoptera. Tineidae.) 



Appearing the latter part of June, at times excessively nume- 

 rous, residing in worm-eaten leaves drawn together by silken 



