EDWARD NORTON. 255 



length, apical joint slender and pointed; head polished; lower ocellus 

 in an ovate basin, with a sinus beneath; mandibles stout, second tooth 

 nearly as long as first, with three irregularities beneath ; body wholly 

 black; tips of the four anterior femora, with the tibia3 and tarsi more 

 or less dull white; claws short and sharp, with no inner tooth near the 

 tip. Wings hyaline, a large clouded spot below stigma; marginal di- 

 viding nervure oblique, almost touching the third submargiiial nervure. 



New England, Pennsylvania, Michigan. 



The larva is twenty-footed, is larger before than behind, and is co- 

 vered with an olive-colored, sticky slime (like a slug.) There are two 

 broods, in June, July and in September, of which the first is the most 

 numerous and destructive. Prof. Peck, in a paper published in Bo.s- 

 ton, by the Mass. Ag. Soc. 1799, makes the following statements with 

 regard to it : On the 6th of June he saw a female depositing an egg 

 under the "upper membrane of a cherry leaf, but on the under side of 

 the leaf," fir.st making a circular incision about half a line in diameter, 

 then withdrawing the ovipositor a little and forcing an egg into the 

 apertttre. It was first a long oval, and from day to day became more 

 spherical in shape. On the tenth day the eyes of the larva became 

 visible through the membranes of the leaf and egg, and on the four- 

 teenth day the larva came forth and began to feed. On first quitting 

 the egg the larva is nearly white, the head brown and large. In 

 the course of twenty days it throws ofi" four skins, each of which it 

 generally eats at once ; it remains in the fifth viscous skin six days and 

 acquires its full growth, and then quits the skin, leaving it adhering 

 to the leaf, and appears in a clear yellow skin, not viscous. Soon after, 

 it descends to the earth, which it penetrates to the depth of from 

 one to four inches^ forming little cells of hardened earth, smooth with- 

 in. On the 12th of July he collected about 170 of these larvae in the 

 mature state and placed them in a vessel filled with light earth, from 

 which they began to rise in the imago state in eighteen days, but con- 

 tinued to appear for some time, and some remained in the pupa state 

 until the following spring. The second brood of larvae appeared in 

 August, and individuals came forth as late as September and October, 

 but not in so great numbers as in the first brood. Of these he collect- 

 ed about 190, which remained in the pupa case during the winter, but 

 did not change from the larva into the pupa state until May. On the 

 21st of May they began to appear in the imago state and lay their eggs, 

 but did not all come forth at once, many being several weeks later. 

 The larva when of full size is about 0.45 inch in length. It feeds up- 



