STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 377 



CHERRY. LEAVES. 



The Cecropia emperor moth, No. 33. Two young worms 

 which I placed on a garden cherry fed freely thereon, remaining 

 till they were full grown, and I doubt not this species sometimes 

 occurs naturally upon this tree. 



§0, Promethea emperor moth, Attacus Promethea^ Drury. (Lepidoptera. 

 Bombycidae.) 



In August, a large cylindrical, or when at rest a tapering pale 

 greenish-yellow worm coated with a white bloom except at each 

 end, with six rows of black dots or small prickles, the two upper 

 ones on the second or third rings larger, resembling little horns 

 of a bright red color like sealing wax, and on top of the ring for- 

 ward of the last a single bright sulphur yellow protuberance; 

 forming its cocoon inside of a rolled leaf the stem of which is tied 

 to the limb with silken threads; the moth coming from it the last 

 of June, its wings measuring from 3.60 to 4.40, sooty black, in 

 the female brownish red, bordered behind with drab gray in which 

 is a wavy black line having forward of it on the hind wings a 

 row of round black spots, in the female deep red, the inner ones 

 more or less united. 



As Dr. Harris (Treatise, page 300) mentions the cocoons of this 

 insect as sometimes occurring on the cherry it will be inferred 

 that it feeds upon the leaves of this tree. And I introduce this 

 species here, to observe that I have reason to think the statements 

 which liave hitherto been made respecting the vegetation on which 

 this insect subsists, are perhaps erroneous, writers having proba- 

 bly taken it for granted that it fed upon the trees on which they 

 have found its cocoons. This is a subject of more than ordinary 

 importance, since it has been shown upon a preceding page tliat 

 this moth and the Cecropia are most intimately related to the 

 Arrindy silk worm; and further experiments should be insti- 

 tuted to ascertain whether the silk of these moths of our own 

 country does not possess similar durability and strengtli with that 

 of the East India worm, and whctlier these insects are not suscej)- 

 tible of being turned to a vahia])le account. 



All the statements Iiltliertu ])ublis}HHl point to the sassafras as 

 the tree on which tlie larviE of the Promethea moth chiefly sub- 

 sist. Now for fifteen years past a sassafras has been growing in 



