146 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 3 



Mb. Conradi: And what is the daily cost of operation? 

 Mr. Cotton : About seventy-five cents. 



President Britton : The next paper on the programme is by 

 Mr. E. F. Hitchings, Waterville, Me. 



THE UNPRECEDENTED APPEARANCE OF THE SAD- 



DLED-PROMINENT 



( Heterocampa guttivitta) 



By E. F. Hitchings, WatcrviUe, Me. 



Past History. This insect has appeared in the writings of eminent 

 entomologists under at least five different genera and ten different 

 species, but it has never been regarded as of enough importance to 

 receive a common name until the season of 1908, when, on account of 

 its extensive ravages in Maine, it was by mutual agreement of the 

 Experiment Station and the Maine Department of Agriculture called 

 the Saddled-prominent. 



Doctor Felt, in his twenty-third report of New York, has suggested 

 the name "An tiered maple caterpillar." This is open to criticism, 

 for in the first place the caterpillar remains in the antlered stage for 

 only a few days, in the second place maple is not its favorite diet. It 

 prefers beech above all other food plants. During the recent in- 

 vasion it fed freely on such other trees as oak, white and yellow birch, 

 maple, hornbeam, hazel, apple, pear, plum, cherry, etc. 



The insect was first named by Walker in 1855. Beginning in 1864, 

 Packard assigned it to no less than two genera and five species, while 

 "Walker seemed to vie with him and placed it under three genera and 

 four species. It did not come into prominence sufficiently to be men- 

 tioned in Insect Life. 



Distribution. I quote from the fifth report of the Entomological 

 Commission : It was reported as found feeding on white oak October 

 9 at Providence, R. I. "Found on sugar maple July 10 at Brunswick, 

 Me. The egg was found July 3 on the red maple at Brunswick, 

 Me." Hatched July 10th. Packard quotes in a footnote from Dr. 

 Dyar: "I have twice found a peculiar variety of guttivitta, one at 

 Woods Hole, Mass., one at Jefferson, N. H., in which a large brown 

 dorsal patch was retained in the last stage." Riley reported it in 

 Marjdand on oak, hickory, walnut and birch on July 9, 1882. French 

 found it in Union County, 111., on June 20. The above quotations 



