132 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



persons had seen the larvae, and fewer still had witnessed their feeding. 

 They were, for the above reasons, believed to be nocturnal feeders. An 

 informant, who had observed the movement of a blade of grass, which, 

 retaining its attachment to the root, had its tip bent downward and 

 carried into a hole in the ground, inclined to the belief that most of 

 the feeding, and all of that done during the day, was subterraneous, the 

 larva gradually drawing the blade in its concealed retreat as it fed 

 upon it. Objections to this theory were found in that the grass was 

 usually eaten closely down to the crown of the root, and that holes in 

 the soil which should lead to such retreats were very rarely seen. 



Local Gatherings of Caterpillars, 

 No migration, like the hunger-impelled marches of the army-worm- 

 had been seen, or any common progressive movement of the caterpil- 

 lars. In two instances, as narrated to me, immense numbers were ob- 

 served in assemblages so large as to give countenance to the prevalent 

 idea of an army-worm invasion. In both cases they had collected 

 about the base and upon the trunk of a tree (a maple and an oak), to 

 the height of two or three feet above the ground. They not only en- 

 tirely covered the surface, but were piled upon one another so that, as 

 stated, they could have been scooped up by handfuls. This occurred 

 at Potsdam, three days previous to my visit to the place. That I 

 might, if possible, verify these statements, I visited one of the locali- 

 ties of these gatnei'ings, on the farm of Mr. L. D. Partridge, upon an 

 island in the Raquette river. The caterpillars had evidently been 

 here in force, for all the grass upon the island had been eaten. The 

 oak tree which had been mentioned as the gathering point was readily 

 found, as it was the only oak in the field. It was evident that their 

 number had not been misrepresented, for the trunk was found en- 

 veloped to a height of eighteen inches, with a firm web of silk which 

 had been spun by the hosts of larvte, as was also a decayed stump of 

 about two feet in height, standing a few inches from the tree. Upon 

 the upper surface of a prostrate log adjacent, and extending thence a 

 short distance over the ground in the direction of the tree was a simi- 

 lar web, and some large stones lying at the base of the tree were also 

 coated in the same manner. The web, especially that upon the tree, 

 was of so firm a texture that it could be stripped from the bark in a 

 continuous sheet like a piece of woven silk. There were no excrementa 

 mingled with it. Throughout the sheet were little openings of various 

 sizes, averaging perhaps one-fourth of an inch, for which I was unable 

 to account. They could not have been places of egress, for the con- 

 struction of the web clearly did not permit of such immense numbers of 

 caterpillars as were necessary to its formation, to have been massed 

 beneath it. 



