228 Forty- FOURTH Report on the State Museum 



pair of wings are sometimes tinged with red. The body is darker 

 yellow, and is marked with a row of six black spots above and a simi- 

 lar row on each side, and two rows of smaller dots underneath. The 

 moths measure about two inches in spread of wings. 



Food of the Caterpillar. 



Although the caterpillar feeds on a large number of plants, and is 

 somewhat common, yet from its habit of keeping near the ground and 

 confining itself principally to the lower leaves, it is far less injurious 

 than is another of the woolly-bears, with long, uneven, yellow hairs, 

 named Spilosoma virginica. 



[Perhaps a rather unusual diet for it is that of feeding on other 

 insects, but in one instance, at least, it is known to have displayed a 

 cannibalistic taste and to have devoured the pupse of a butterfly, 

 Pyrameis cardui, which had transformed in a box in which some 

 caterpillars of both species had been confined together. When 

 the box was opened one of the isabellas was discovered feeding on a 

 pupa which it had half consumed. Two had previously been eaten. 

 An abundance of vegetable food was in the box.] 



Its Natural Enemies. 

 It is not known to have many natural enemies ; chickens and other 

 poultry would not dare to eat it. It is occasionally parasitized by 

 some of the ichneumon flies when its rolled-up position opens its bar- 

 ricade of hairs sufficiently to admit of the insertion of an egg within 

 or upon its body. [Of these, four species have been recorded by 

 Professor Riley, viz., Ophion macrurum (Linn.), Ichneumon cceruleus 

 Cress., Ichneumon signatipes Cress., and Trogus obsidianator Brulle 

 {American Entomologist, iii, 1880, p. 134). Ophion arctice Riley MS., 

 has also been bred from it {Insect Life, iii. 1890, p. 155).] 



Helophilus latifrons (Loew). 



(Ord. Diptera: Fam. Syrphid^.) 



LoEw : Diptera Americae Septentrionalis indig., Century iv, 1863, p. 73. 

 Walsh: in Amer. Entomol., ii. 1870, p. 142, f. 94. 

 Glover: MS. Notes Journ.— Dipt., 1874, p. 25, pi. 9, f. 21. 

 OstenSacken: West. Dipt., in Bull. U. S. G.-G. Surv., iii, 1877, pp. ;321, 



337; in Bull. Buf. See. Nat. Sci., iii, 1877, p. 57; Cat. Dipt. N. A., 



1878, p. 134. 

 Williston: in Proc. Amer. Philosoph. Soc, xx, 1882, p. 324; Synop. N. A. 



Syrph., in Bull. 31. U. S. Nat. Mus,, 1886, p. 188 (detailed description). 

 Lintner : Kept. St. Entomol. for 1885, in 39th Kept. N. Y. St. Mus. Nat, 



Hist., 1887, p. 102-3 (as H. similis). 

 Smith : Catalogue Ins. N. J., 1890, p. 386. 



