ENTOMOLOGIST'S REPORT. 



113 



eyes of a mottled dark-brown color, and slender, tapering antennse 

 three-fourths the length of the wings; legs long- and of a satiny-white 

 color. 



Dr. Riley's more technical characterization of the species may be 

 found in the volume of " Insect Life " referred to above. 



The Bag- worm or Basket- worm [Thyridopteryx epheniera'formis, 

 Haw.) — The singular and destructive insect named and iigured here 

 has been attracting very general attention during the past two summers. 



^^^ ^- So far as Missouri is 



concerned, a very large 

 proportion of the en- 

 tomological i n q uiries 

 addressed to me last 

 summer related to the 

 habits and remedies for 

 this insect, while visit- 

 ors from the country 

 frequently brought 

 specimens with ac- 

 counts of its extremely 

 destructive work on 



Baa-worm in different stagfis of development a, caterpillar 



(larva) taken out of case ; b, pupa ; c, legless and wingless fe- evergrCCnS and Other 

 male moth ; d. winged male moth ; e, case filled with eggs ; 

 /, full-grown larva in case ; g, newly-hatcned larvae in tiny treCS. 

 conical cases (alter Riley) 



Besides the very appropriate names of Bag-worm and Basket- 

 worm, it is also called the Case-worm, Evergreen Cone-worm and 

 Drop-worm — the latter from its habit, when full-grown, of dropping 

 from the trees on which it fed, upon the passer-by. It was also dubbed 

 last season, by newspaper reporters in some of the interior towns, the 

 " Missouri Silk-worm." The Bag-worm occurs in all parts of the 

 United States east of the Rocky mountains, except in the extreme 

 north, but finds its most congenial climate between latitudes 30° and 

 40°. Until recently it was considered the especial pest of the shade- 

 trees of cities, and was often the most serious obstacle to the thrift and 

 beauty of those planted for ornament and shade of parks and avenues. 

 But from the cities it has slowly spread countryward to the grounds 

 of suburban residents and farms, until it is now to be found in many of 

 the forests, especially those intersected by railways — the latter having 

 been, no doubt, the unconscious means of its dissemination. While its 

 marked preference — where it has opportunity for the exercise of pre- 

 ference — IS for the foliage of evergreens, especially of Red cedar, it 



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