INSECTS AFFECTING PARK AND WOODLAND TREES 3II 



follows. The moths begin to issue from the ground late in September and 

 early in October in the Central or Eastern States. The males almost 

 always appear first, as stated by Dr Riley, and in some instances emergence 

 has been retarded a whole year. The eggs are deposited in small masses 

 encircling twigs, the smallest number in one being 70 and ranging from that 

 to 200. The deposition of the egg has been described by Dr Riley as 

 follows : 



Holding fi'-mly by all her feet, the female stations herself upon a twig, 

 with her head usually toward the end. She then stretches her abdomen to 

 its fullest extent and fastens the first egg ; another is then attached by its 

 side, and so on, the body reaching round the twig without letting go the 

 feit. In this manner, governed by the thickness of the twig, an irregular, 

 somewhat spiral ring is formed and others added, until toward the last the 

 abdomen is raised and the ovipositor brought up between the legs. The 

 lower or first deposited ones incline so as to almost lie on their sides. 



Dr Lintner states that the eggs are firmly united to one another and 

 to the twig by a glutinous matter in which they are enveloped. This sub- 

 stance forms rings of black around the points of attachment of the eggs to 

 the twio-, and at the places of union between the eggs it assumes a reddish 

 color. The young larvae hatch the latter part of May. Dr Lintner records 

 the appearance of some on the 27th in 1869, and adds that their escape from 

 the shell was, without a single exception, from the apex through a regular 

 elliptic opening eaten by the larvae. The translucent or brownish yellow 

 egg shells remain on the stems. The caterpillars feed ravenously. Those 

 reared by Dr Lintner attained maturity July 17, entered the ground soon 

 after and by the 2 2d, one had transformed to the pupa and the last by 

 Aug. I. 



Food plants. This species has been recorded by Dr Riley as feeding 

 on the leaves of our different oaks, and he adds that the larvae "are some- 

 times quite abundant on the young post, black and red oaks along the Iron 

 mountain region." He also found them abundant on the scrub willow, 

 Salix humilis in Northern Illinois and on a rosebush, and he states 

 that it occurred on the common hazel, wdiile Glover has recorded it as 

 livinf on the wild black cherrv. Dr Lintner states that this species prob- 



