320 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE 



Ampelophaga, is perfectly well known, and very much dreaded 

 by all the Tuscan cultivators. 



Some years this insect does much mischief to the buds and 

 young shoots of the vine. It has sometimes devastated half the 

 vineyards of Piedmont. It is five or six lines in length ; its 

 colour is greyish brown ; the hairs are in tufts, disposed in four 

 rows. Underneath it is smooth and of a yellowish white : it 

 attains its full size towards the end of May ; it is at this time 

 that it eats the leaves of the vine. It is always found on the 

 upper side of the leaves. When a branch is shook, the cater- 

 pillar bends its body in the form of an arc, and lets itself fall 

 to the ground. The largest number of these caterpillars I 

 have ever seen on one vine, is ten ; but there are not generally 

 nearly so many. 



Some time between the 20th and 30th of May, this cater- 

 pillar spins a white cocoon, wherein it remains motionless, and 

 afterwards changes to a chrysalis about the 5th or 10th of 

 June. 



The chrysalis is at first of a yellow colour, with black dots 

 on each segment ; but as the time of transformation ap- 

 proaches its colour becomes deeper, and changes to a dirty 



blue. 



The transformation of the chrysalides to moths, generally 

 takes place from the 19th to the 25th of June. 



The moth which comes from this caterpillar is the Procris 

 Vitis or P. Ampelophaga of modern entomologists ; its wings 

 are of a blackish colour, changing to dull green. Body, bluish 

 green. 



Musca brevis frequently introduces its eggs into the body 

 of the chrysalis of this moth. The larva of the fly feeds on 

 the substance of the chrysalis, without altering the appearance 

 of its external covering, and it seems to be transformed into a 

 fly instead of producing a moth. 



Each female of this Procris lays about three hundred eggs, 

 which are of a straw-colour, and so small that they are hardly 

 to be seen with the naked eye. About the 3d of July these 

 eggs produce little white transparent caterpillars, covered with 

 very minute hairs. The caterpillars of this second brood 

 undergo transformation towards the 26th of August. 



I have myself in part verified Bosc's observations on the 

 culer^'iWair oi Pyralis Danticana. I am only acquainted with 



