82 



FIKST ANNUAL EEPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



otice seeu, or even after a study of its description uud illustration, it 

 cannot fail of being recognized. There are other species of basket- 

 worms occurring elsewhere which construct similar cases. They are 

 very much alike, except in size, usually of an elongate, pointed, oval 

 form, and are composed of a tough silk, interwoven with bits of the 

 leaves and pieces of the stems of the food-plant upon which they are 

 found. 



These cases are always worn by the larvae, and when, toward ma- 

 turity, they have, by continued additions, increased to a large size, they 

 hang downward (whence their name of hag-iuorni), in apparently a 

 cumbersome burden, but, firmly held by the abdominal segments and 

 their legs, they are carried about with the greatest ease, by means of 

 the anterior segments and their three pairs of legs extended from the 



case, as shown in 

 Fig. 13 at/. When 

 alarmed, the larva 

 retreats within its 

 case, where it is 

 kept from falling 

 by the silken 

 thread Avhich it 

 spins and attaches 

 to the twig in its 

 travels over the 

 tree. To those who 

 are unfamiliar 

 with the strange- 



FiG. 13. — The Baar-worm, Thyridoptertx ephemer.eformis. — i i • „ i i 



*. * n A 1 -1*1 tv ^ 1 looking cased cat- 



a, the caterpillar; o, male pupa ; c, wingless female moth ; a, male _ ° 



moth; e, section of female pupa and cocoon;/, case or bag of crjllllars, tliey anCi 



mature caterpillar ; g, cases of young caterpillars. t ll 6 i 1" operations 



and movements are of great interest. They commence their cases as 

 soon as they escape from the eggs. These at first appear as little tips 

 of extraneous matter attached to and surrounding their hinder end. 

 Gradually they assume the form of a cone, beneath which, when drawn 

 down to the surface of the leaf, the caterpillar is entirely hiddt;;n, as 

 represented in the little cones at g. With the larval growth the cones 

 are enlarged, until they become the oval cases which cover all but the 

 anterior portion of the larva while feeding. 



The male moth, shown at d, is of small size (an inch in spread), and 

 very plain in appearance, with its transparent and thin wings. The 

 female is very imperfectly developed, as may be seen from its figure at 

 c. It has neither legs, wings, antenna, or any external features from 

 which one would be led to refer it to the order of Lepidoptera. It is 

 scarcely more than an animated, although a very sluggish, egg-case. 



