LEPIDOPTERA. 295 



and by means of them it finally works its way out of the cocoon 

 and rises to the surface of the ea th ; this being done, the included 

 moth bursts its chrysalis shell, and comes forth into the open air. 

 In moths of this kind (genus Hepiolus) the antennae are very 

 short, slender, almost threadlike, and not feathered or pectinated ; 

 the tongue is wanting or invisible ; and the feelers are excessively 

 small, and concealed in a tuft of hairs. The hop-vine Hepiolus 

 has not yet been detected in Massachusetts ; but we have a much 

 larger species, known to me only in the moth state, which is the 

 reason of my having given the foregoing account of the prepara- 

 tory stages of a European species. This moth does not appear 

 to have been described. It is named, in my Catalogue of the 

 " Insects of Massachusetts," Hepiolus argenteomaculatus, the 

 silver-spotted Hepiolus. Its body and wings are rather long. It 

 is of an ashen gray color ; the fore-wings are variegated with 

 dusky clouds and bands, and have a small triangular spot and a 

 round dot of a silvery white color near their base ; the hind-wings 

 are tinged with ochre-yellow towards the tip. It expands two 

 inches and three quarters. 



The locust-tree, Robinia pseudacacia, is preyed upon by three 

 different kinds of wood-eaters or borers, whose unchecked rav- 

 ages seem to threaten the entire destruction and extermination of 

 this valuable tree within this part of the United States. One of 

 these borers is a little reddish caterpillar, whose operations are 

 confined to the small branches and to very young trees, in the 

 pith of which it lives ; and by its irritation it causes the twig to 

 swell around the part attacked. These swellings, being spongy 

 and also perforated by the caterpillar, are weaker than the rest of 

 the stem, which therefore easily breaks off at these places. My 

 attempts to complete the history of this insect have not been suc- 

 cessful hitherto ; and I can only conjecture that it belongs to the 

 iEgerians, or possibly to the tribe of Bombyces. 



The second kind of borer of the locust-tree is larger than the 

 foregoing, is a grub, and not a caterpillar, which finally turns to the 

 beetle named Clytus piclus, the painted Clytus, already described 

 on a preceding page of this essay. 



The third of the wood-eaters, to which the locust-tree is ex- 

 posed, though less common than the others, and not so universally 



