114 FIRST ANNUAL KEPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



species, as it was unknown to the writer; but it evidently pertains to 

 this insect. The description is as follows : — 



With ten prolegs and six true legs, a corneous plate on first and last segments ; 

 four black, shiuiug points, two and two, on the back of each segment ; a lateral 

 row of much larger ones on the sides (of which there are three on the side of each 

 segment, one large and two small, besides the black spiracle making a fourth 

 black point), and also below the lateral line two more black points on each side 

 of every segment, those on the segments furnished with prolegs, being on the sides 

 of the prolegs themselves. Length nine-tenths of an inch. Elongated, slender, 

 pale purplish-brown above, with three dorsal white lines, the central one continu- 

 ous, the others interrupted on the middle of the back, from the fourth to the 

 seventh segments inclusive (these three lines begin on the second segment.) On 

 the sides of the first and second segments there is an abbreviated white stripe 

 and above the third and fourth prolegs another white stripe. Head, dorsal and 

 anal plates wax-yellow and shining, edged laterally with shining black. Legs 

 blacli. Prolegs and body beneath pale yellow. The head of this caterpillar is 

 large, subquadrate, not retractile. The legs and prolegs long, and the motion very 

 active. The livid brownish color of the intermediate segments extends more or 

 less in different specimens under the body of these same segments. Motion some- 

 what like that of a Qeometrid, the back arched, and the first pair of prolegs, 

 though as long as the others, not used in creeping. 



Found one also in pigweed-stalk, July 5, 1851. 



Natural History of the Species. 



The liistory of the species so far as known, is this. The egg has 

 not been observed. It is doubtless deposited by the moth during the 

 early part of June, in our latitude, on the stem of the food-plant, near 

 the ground. As soon as it hatches, the larva eats into the stem to its 

 pith or heart, and burrows in an upward direction. The hole through 

 Avhich it entered and the lower portion of its burrow is enlarged from 

 time to time, with the growth of the larva, to admit of the rejection- 

 of its excrement. If the stem should not afford it a sufficient amount 

 of food for the completion of its growth, it eats a hole outwardly for its 

 release, or escapes through the original opening, and passes to another 

 stem within which it burrows. It attains its growth about the middle 

 of August, when it changes to a pupa, either within its burrow, if af- 

 fording it suitable conditions, or by deserting it, and entering the 

 ground to a slight depth. The pupation is a short one, and the per- 

 fect insect makes its appearance during the latter part of August or in 

 September. My earliest date of the collection of the species is Septem- 

 ber 5th. It is believed to survive the winter in the winged state and 

 to rea{)pear in the spring, to deposit its eggs on the young plants. 



This species seems to be a rare one in the vicinity of Albany. Among 

 the scores of thousands of the Noctuids which during the last few 

 years have been collected by the Albany entomologists, by the sugaring 

 method (attracting the moths to a bait spread upon trees), I have no 

 knowledge of the occurrence of a single example of the species. 



