ORGYiA leucostigma: its depredations. 77 



Cecropiu (Linn.) and Telea Polyphemus (Linn.). The former is re- 

 corded as feeding upon forty-nine species of plants,* belonging to nine- 

 teen genera, and to nine natural orders — the orders being TiliacecB, 

 Aceraceie, Rosacece, Saxifragacem, CaprifoUacece, Urticacece, Cupili- 

 ferce, Betulacem and SalicacecB : the latter, Polyphemus, upon the same 

 number of species, in sixteen genera, and in eight orders. (Wm. Bro- 

 die, in Papilio, ii, 1882, pp. 32-3, 58-60.) 



The Orgyia caterpillar has not been favored with so careful a com- 

 pilation of its food-plants ; the following, presumably the more common 

 ones, are recorded : Linden (Tilia Americana), horse-chestnut {yEscu- 

 lus hippocasiainim), locust, rose, plum, cherry, apple, pear, elm, butter- 

 nut (Jiiglans cinerea), black-walnut {Juglans nigra), hickory {Carya 

 alba), oak, spruce, fir, and larch. I noticed it last summer, in Septem- 

 ber, seriously injuring the foliage of some castor-oil plants, Ricinus 

 communis. 



Depredations. 



On the horse-chestnut. — The horse-chestnut, which had steadily been 

 growing in popular favor as a shade-tree, from the almost entire immu- 

 nity which its foliage has enjoyed from insect attack, f has of late years 

 been apparently chosen by the Orgyia for its favorite food-plant. It 

 might be thought that a leafage so dense and luxuriant would afford more 

 than the required amount of food for any number of insect depredators 

 that could assemble upon it; but in seasons favorable to the multiplica- 

 tion of the insect, the largest trees in the city of Albany have shown 

 the pitiable spectacle of a foliage entirely consumed — only the ribs of 

 the leaves remaining. Not only were the trees left useless for shade, but 

 their lives were endangered, for, although under favoring conditions of 

 moisture and not excessive temperature, a second feeble leafage would 

 sustain their existence, yet a repetition of the attack the following year 

 could hardly fail of proving fatal. Hosts of greedy caterpillars could 

 be seen deserting their exhausted feeding grounds and descending the 

 trunk in search of the food still needed by them. 



On the elm. — The elm is also injured to a degree not much less than 

 the horse-chestnut. The immense size of most of the white elms 

 ( Ulmus Americanus) planted for shade, offers, in their long limbs and 

 spreading branches, more abundant food, and in a measure diffuses the 

 ravages that they sustain, yet frequently a large proportion of their 



* Not such as the cocoon and larva may have been found upon, " but held to be such as 

 a perfect female Cecropia, at liberty, will select as food for her young." 



t Besides this species, I can recall but two other caterpillars that feed upon it, viz., 

 Acronycta Americana Harris, and Ennomos suhsignaria (Htlbn.), and these, usually, to 

 quite a limited extent. 



