ESPECIALLY OF LOCAL INTEREST 



VII 



Especially of Local Interest 



The Caterpillar in Bloom. 

 "In my garden 1 have found the strang- 

 est looking caterpillar that I have ever 

 seen. It looks as if it were bursting 

 into bloom." Thus telephoned Mrs. Wal- 

 ter N. Travis, of Stamford, Connecticut. 

 The reply was that the caterpillar was 

 probably the common large green "worm" 

 to be found on tomato vines, sometimes 

 on Virginia Creeper and known as the 

 hog caterpillar of the vine. This parti- 



one inch objective. Sometimes these 

 cocoons are yellowish and are found at- 

 tached to grass or other plants instead 

 of to the caterpillar which the larva have 

 destroyed. 



Now is the time to look for these clus- 

 ters of cocoons on the grass. I think that 

 thus late in the year they are more fre- 

 quently found in such localities than on 

 caterpillars. So far as I have observed 

 the cocoons are formed on caterpillars 



THE "ELOOM" OF COCOONS ON CATERPILLAR FOUND BY MRS. TRAVIS IN HER STAMFORD 



GARDEN. 



cular larva is often infected by a little 

 parasitic Hy of the genus Microgaster, 

 that lays its eggs within the body of the 

 caterpillar and when ,the eggs transform 

 to the pupa stage the caterpillar is com- 

 pletely covered with tiny white cocoons 

 that stand endwise on the victim. The 

 end of each pupa lifts and, like a jack- 

 in-the-box, a tiny fly emerges. These 

 are extremely Ijeautiful in appearance 

 and extremely interesting to study. From 

 the specimen brought by Airs. Travis the 

 accompanying illustration was made with 

 some magnification to show how it ap- 

 peared to her and Mr. Travis who 

 brought the specimen to AkcAdiA and 

 viewed it under the microscope with a 



early in the year and on grass late, but 

 this may be due not only to the season 

 but to the different varieties of this fam- 

 il}- of fiies. William Hamilton Gibson 

 has an interesting chapter in "Sharp 

 Eyes" about "Those Puzzling' Cocoon 

 Clusters," with especial reference to the 

 clusters on grass but in his "Eye Spy" 

 he has an interesting essay with illustra- 

 tions, entitled. "What Ails Him?" He 

 writes October 20th : 



"They may be found now almost any 

 day in a short stroll through the rowen 

 fields. I have picked over fifty clusters 

 in one short walk across an October 

 meadow. They are generally attached in 

 a circular cluster about a grass stem, 



