PAPILIO. 



Devoted Exclusively to kpidoptera. 



Edited by 1 r Vol. 4. 



^lTkB^;too°°' i Philadelphia, February, 1884. 1 ^^ 2 



THE LEPIDOPTEROUS GENUS DATANA. 



Bv Henry Edwards. 



(Read before tlie Liiinean Society of New York, December, 1883.) 



It is my purpose this evening briefly to call the attention of the so- 

 ciety to a genus of moths well known to entomologists and collectors, 

 the habits of which, however, as far as a close study of the various 

 species is concerned, appear to be but little understood. All persons 

 accustomed to notice the objects of nature are familiar with the cater- 

 pillars of these moths, which are found in spring and summer in large 

 numbers upon the terminal branches of our oak, hickory and walnut 

 trees. They are generally bunched together in a somewhat compact 

 mass, and on being disturbed throw themselves around in a singular 

 and somewhat ludicrous manner, jerking their extremities from side to 

 side, and bending the body so that the head and anal extremities meet 

 over the back. They are mostly blackish or brown in color, with 

 stripes of yellow or white, variously disposed in the different species. 

 The destruction they cause is terrible, it being by no means an uncom- 

 mon occurrence to see whole trees denuded of their foliage by the at- 

 tacks of these pernicious caterpillars. I have found as many as 130 

 individuals in one of their bunch-like masses, while others were scat- 

 tered over various portions of the tree. The depredations they com- 

 mit are therefore readily understood. It may be said that on the young 

 larvce being hatched from a bundle of smooth, shining, whitish eggs, 

 which are laid by the parent generally on the under side of a twig or 

 stem, they commence their work of destruction by devouring only the 

 softer parts and the lower side of the leaf, gradually, however, con- 

 suming all except the stem. When fully fed they descend the tree in- 

 dependently of each other, enter the ground, and transform to a smooth 

 pitchy brown chrysalis, not enclosed, as a rule, in a cocoon, though it 

 would appear that the insect if not quite deep enough in the soil has 

 the power to protect itself from the inclemencies and changes of tern- 



