326 LEPIDOPTERA. 



found both brown and green specimens feeding on the grape 

 vine in midsummer. The worms can be removed by hand-pick- 

 ing as they are rather conspicuous objects. A larva, probably 

 of Cidaria, has been found by Mr. W. C. Fish, stripping the cran- 

 berry plants in Harwich, Mass., late in August. Mr. Fish 

 writes, "I have never met them that I am aware of before, but 

 on one bog in this place they destroyed nearly two acres of 

 cranberry vines, eating off all the green leaves, the bog being 

 as black in spots as though a fire had been over it." They 

 were not numerous elsewhere in that town, but may prove at 

 times to be a great pest to cranberry growers. We failed to 

 rear the larvae sent by Mr. Fish. They are about the size of 

 the canker worm. The head, wiiich is no wider than the rest 

 of the body, is deeply indented, on each side rising into a tu- 

 bercle ; the anal plate is long, acute, and beneath it are two 

 minute acute tubercles, tinged with reddish. It is dull reddish 

 brown, simulating the color of the twigs of the cranberry, and is 

 finely lineated with still darker lines. The head is speckled with 

 brown, with a conspicuous transverse band across the vertex, 

 and two rows of pale spots across the front. Just above the 

 spiracles is a broad dusky band. Beneath, the body is paler, 

 with a mesial clear line edged with brown. It is .80 of an inch 

 in length. Mr. Fish states that the owner of the bog flowed it 

 with water so that it was completely covered and the worms, 

 were killed. This is a rapid and the most effectual way to ex- 

 terminate insects ravaging cranberry lots. 



Ptralid^ Latreille. The Snout-moths, so called from their 

 very long and slender com.pressed palpi, are very easily recog- 

 nized by this character alone. The more typical forms have 

 triangular fore wings, and a slender abdomen and long 

 slender legs, the front pair of which are often tufted. They 

 are usually dull ash gi'ay, with a marked silken lustre. The 

 larger genera, Hjqjena and Herminia, etc., are called Deltoids, 

 as when at rest the wings form a triangle of the form of the 

 Greek letter Delta. Their antennae are sometimes pectinated 

 in the male. They are usually gregarious in their habits, and 

 often extremely local. They haunt moist grassy places, are 

 readily disturbed by day, and fly before dusk, while some are 



