THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 31 



and that it had since spread over a large area, doing great damage. Apple 

 trees in June last were as destitute of leaves as in mid-winter, the fruit 

 growing to the size of marbles and falling off. 



A late communication — with replies to a series of questions — shows 

 the destruction to be even worse than at first reported. I give Mr. Daven- 

 port's own words : 



" The insect made its appearance four years ago upon Rich Mountain, 

 since which time it has been spreading in a northern semicircle at the rate 

 of about fifteen miles a year. It is by far the most interesting insect that 

 has plagued this country since the first white settlement. So wonderfully 

 prolific, that in two years it literally covered every tree, bush and shrub, 

 and with the exception of a few varieties, stripped them of their leaves. 



" The egg hatches about the first of May, and the caterpillar, which is 

 dark brown, lives about forty days, transforms to a chrysalis, lives in this 

 state about ten days, and emerges a milk-white miller. For two weeks 

 before their first transformation the fall of their excreta, in the woods, 

 resembles a gentle shower of rain, and from its abundance tinges the 

 streams a dark green hue. I have seen trees that had been stripped of 

 their foliage, entirely wrapped up in their silken webs, resembling, when 

 covered with dew, a wrapping of canvas. They constitute a great feast for 

 all insectivorous birds and animals ; it is said that even cattle and sheep 

 eat them with great greed. They have an instinctive way of protecting 

 themselves by losing their hold upon the limb, at the slightest touch, and 

 swinging by their web in the air. For this reason they are easily shaken 

 off into sheets and destroyed ; however, they are so numerous, this 

 remedy is worth nothing except in keeping them off very small trees. 

 This instinct is not lost after leaving the caterpillar state, for if a bird 

 alights upon a tree above the millers, they suddenly drop like a shower of 

 snow to the ground for protection." 



In the Practical Entomologist, volume i, page 57, an anonymous 

 writer gives an account of this insect's attacks on elms in Philadelphia. 

 Dr. Packard, in his Monograph of the Geometrid Moths, page 528, men- 

 tions only elm as a food plant, but Prof Thomas, in his Second Illinois 

 Report, page 243, says : " I have not noticed them feeding upon that tree, 

 but have twice found them feeding upon apple, upon the leaves of which 

 1 have reared them to the perfect insect. In neither case were they 

 numerous." Prof Comstock makes brief mention of the insect in his 



