LEPIDOPTERA. 269 



under than on the upper side ; there is a row of black dots on 

 the top of the back, another on each side, and between these 

 a longitudinal deep yellow stripe ; the hips and thighs of the 

 fore legs are also ochre-yellow. It expands from one inch and 

 a half to two inches. Its eggs are of a golden yellow color, 

 and arc laid, in patches, upon the leaves of plants. In some 

 parts of France, and in Belgium, the people have been re- 

 quired by law to echeniUer, or uncaterpillar, their gardens and 

 orchards, and have been punished by fine for the neglect of 

 the duty. Although we have not yet become so prudent and 

 public spirited as to enact similar regulations, we might find 

 it for our advantage to offer a bounty for the destruction of 

 caterpillars ; and though we should pay for them by the quart, 

 as we do for berries, we should be gainers in the end ; while 

 the children, whose idle hours were occupied in the picking of 

 them, would find this a profitable employment. 



The salt-marsh caterpillar, an insect by far too well known 

 on our seaboard, and now getting to be common in the interior 

 of the State, whither it has probably been introduced, while 

 under the chrysalis form, with the salt hay annually carried 

 from the coast by our inland farmers, closely resembles the 

 yellow bear in some of its varieties. The history of this in- 

 sect forms the subject of a communication made by me to the 

 " Agricultural Society of Massachusetts," in the year 1823, 

 and printed in the seventh volume of the "Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Repository and Journal," with figures representing 

 the insect in its different stages. At various times and inter- 

 vals since the beginning of the present century, and probably 

 before it also, the salt marshes about Boston have been overrun 

 and laid waste by swarms of caterpillars. These appear to- 

 wards the end of June, and grow rapidly from that time till 

 the first of August. During this month they come to their 

 full size, and begin to run, as the phrase is, or retreat from the 

 marshes, and disperse through the adjacent uplands, often 

 committing very extensive ravages in their progress. Corn- 

 fields, gardens, and even the rank weeds by the way-side, afford 

 them temporary nourishment while wandering in search of a 

 place of security from the tide and weather. They conceal 



