STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 379 



CHERRY. LEAVES. 



Having finished feeding, the worms invariably repair to other 

 trees having tough leathery leaves which will form a thick sub- 

 stantial mantle around the cocoon, and having short stems that 

 can readily be tied to the twigs from which they grow. We can- 

 not but admire the intelligence which they manifest in this proce- 

 dure. Authors mention the sassafras, cherry, poplar, Azalea, 

 Cephalanthus, snow-drop {Halesia) and bay, as the trees and 

 shrubs on which the cocoons occur; but in this district it selects 

 the lilac in preference to any of these. Few winters pass but 

 that some of these cocoons may be seen on the lilacs in all oui 

 yards, and sometimes fifty or more will be observed upon a single 

 bush. In the city of Albany they are equally as common upon 

 the lilacs as in the surrounding country. But as the other insects 

 of this family feed upon several different trees and shrubs, it is not 

 probable that this is confined to one kind of food. Eeing found, 

 however, in Eastern New-York, so uniformly if not exclusively 

 upon the ash, and its cocoons upon the lilac, it is remarkable 

 that neither of these trees has ever been mentioned by writers, in 

 connection with this most interesting and beautiful moth. 



§1. lo EMPEROR MOTH, Sutumia lo, Fub. (Lepidoptera. Bombjcidae.) 



In August, a thick apple green worm, 2.50 long, covered with 

 clusters of prickles having black tips and stinging like nettles if 

 touched, and along each side an orange or brick red stripe freckled 

 with wliite dots and edged on its lower side by a white stripe; 

 forming a cocoon on the ground under dead leaves; the moth ap- 

 pearing in June, its hind wings bright yellow, their inner margin 

 purplish red and on their middle a large black eye-like spot hav- 

 ing a pale blue centre in which is a white streak; the fore wings 

 yellow in the male, purplish brown in the female. Width 2.70 

 to 3.50. I have met with tliis on tlie wild black clierry and on 

 the thorn. From six. to nine worms often occur upon the same 

 tree. They commonly eat all the leaves from the end of particular 

 limbs, leaving only a sliort stuni}) of the leafstalk. See Harris's 

 Treatise, p. 304. 



S2. Misii'pus nLTTKRKi.v, Limcnitus Miaijypus, Yah. (Ixspidoptcra, Nym- 

 phalidao.) 



In June and July, a thick bodied worm 1.75 long, olive green 

 varied with white, the second ring humped and with two long 



